End mills to start with?

[DavidR8]

Finally got my mill up and running.
These end mills and cutters were given to me as part of the whack of machinist tools.
From left to right:
3/4” PM/Plus Lead 3.535

3/4” PM/Plus Lead 5.053

13/16 “Slugger”

Niagara 20080 1/4” HSS USA E7 Microshield/GP
What should I be looking for to do work in steel and aluminum?

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[benmychree]

Those are all good for steel

 

[mikey]

4 flute finishing, 4 flute coarse pitch roughing, ?6 flute finishing, 2 flute finishing. All will work for steel and aluminum but you will be better off with high helix end mills for aluminum.

 

[MontanaLon]

They will all do fine. I like the 2 flute on aluminum, less chip weld. Stay away from the import sets, they are pretty sketchy in my experience.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

nice score David!
you may wish to get some smaller diameter endmills too
those larger sizes require horsepower to be used effectively, smaller endmills don't need as many ponies to run

 

[Illinoyance]

If you do much in aluminum look for a 2 or 3 flute end mill with polished flutes. The catalog you order from should state "for aluminum".

 

[mmcmdl]

End mills Dave ? How big is your mill ?

 

[MrCrankyface]

I love the roughing endmills, the one in the same style as the second from left.
Unless you need great surface finish, these work great and can really eat material!
Depending on how rigid your mill is, you might want to look into smaller diameters of endmills though.
My mill is around 1200kg but I still find that it works best with endmills smaller than 3/4".

Other stuff to consider is max rpm of your mill.
High rpm = smaller endmills(usually).
My max RPM is 1400 so I'm pretty much limited to minimum 1/2" endmills if I want correct speeds and feeds.
With more flutes you can use a higher feed without overloading each flute BUT you run the risk of loading up the endmill too much if you try to slot or plunge.

For work in aluminium I avoid all kinds of coatings, straight HSS works great, especially with some coolant.
Never mill steel with a cutter that you later want to use for aluminium, to get a really good cut you want them to be super sharp.

Is the third a end mill? Looks kinda like an annular cutter from the photo.

 

[DavidR8]

@MrCrankyface indeed the third one is an annular cutter. I completely forgot that.
I don’t have the arbor for it so I’m not sure if it’s useful to me.


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[DavidR8]

End mills Dave ? How big is your mill ?

It’s a 1hp RF-30 clone, 2100 max rpm.


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