Critique my flycutting results

chris.trotter

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A lovely present was in the mail when I got home - an R8 flycutter! Got it cleaned up, ground the HSS blank, and took some test cuts. I definitely need a power feed on the X-axis, haha!

Some questions!!
- The chips/dust produced - what does that indicate?
- When running this past about 200rpm, the entire machine goes into harmonic vibrations until about 700rpm? - normal for a flycutter on a small machine? (I haven't bolted this to the counter yet)
- Other input/suggestions?

Wooo
Feb2018-Flycutter1.JPG

Result of two passes
- Center of cutter diameter was in line with the left side of this round stock.
- First pass, very light (2-3 thou). Second pass, 5-6 thou.
- Very slow manual feed rate. (uh.... 5 thou a second? Maybe a bit less?)
- It took about 5-10m per pass (my kingdom for a power feed!)
- About 200rpm spindle speed (guessing - I have no RPM meter yet)

The center of the blank has some ridging, but I suspect that's because I didn't get past the rough hacksawn surface. The outer edge is perfectly flat.

During the cut, there was a kind of flat chip being produced and pushed forward, and the rest is just that dust you see.
Feb2018-Flycutter2.JPG

Cutter grind
Based off this post's guidance: how-do-i-sharpen-hss-blanks-for-fly-cutting

I ground it in, then used a 'normal' diamond card to hone it as best I know how. After watching the Tom's Techniques video on flycutting, I have some more grinding knowledge to apply for next time!

Feb2018-Flycutter3.JPG
Feb2018-Flycutter4.JPG
Feb2018-Flycutter5.JPG
 
It looks to me like you have that cutter sharpened wrong. It may be me but from the pics it looks like the cutting may be happening back from the end where there is not enough relief. I would have just sharpened the blank with a relieved radius.
 
Thanks Bill - I am sure it is in some way inaccurate. Here's a very rough sketch of the basic idea:
Feb2018-FlycutterSketch.JPG
- Arrow shows direction cutter is spinning

I don't have an angle gauge, so it's all just by eye right now. I will be trying something like this next: Fly cutter geometry

What do dusty chips mean?
 
Thanks Bill - I am sure it is in some way inaccurate. Here's a very rough sketch of the basic idea:

- Arrow shows direction cutter is spinning

I don't have an angle gauge, so it's all just by eye right now. I will be trying something like this next: Fly cutter geometry

What do dusty chips mean?

What is the material you are cutting?
 
Bill, that's excellent, thanks! PDF was a good read - more fodder for my next attempt.
 
Here is a photo of one I ground for my fly cutter, just a radius on the tip like Bill mentioned. In this picture I was using it vertically to mill a relief but it works horizontally just as well.
IMG_8999.jpg
 
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