Face Mill Heads - how useful are these two

[mksj]

I use a similar Octo mill Iscar F45KT 4" on my Acra/Sharp mill with 3 Hp and am not limited by the Hp or rigidity, if I recall I was taking 0.05" facing cuts on 7075 at 3200 RPM in the picture below. I did have inserts specifically for aluminum, the down side is the cost and availability of inserts, but with 8 cutting edges one sets of inserts will probably be all that I need. I used a Sowa R8 shell mill arbor which appear to be very well made and reasonably priced, although there are a multitude of other arbor vendors that will also work. I have been very happy with the performance/finish of the F45KT, but I am not planing on using it for steel as I have other smaller face mills for that purpose including another Octa insert face mill in 2" diameter. Positive rake requires less Hp, but can be more fragile and more limited DOC. In steel I have been using a Haas HS6NP 2" face mill which allows deeper cuts with a very clean surface, the insert pocket is neutral but the inserts are positive/negative in geometry and handle steel effortlessly.

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[7milesup]

I have a Haas 4" face mill that I use on my (less than Sharp rigidity) PM-935 mill, and it has a positive rake octagon insert like the ones you show. The limitations of a face mill this size on Bridgeport-like machine is depth and width of cut. With the 4" on my PM-935, I can easily plow off 0.100" depth of cut, full diameter in 6061. In 1018 or 303 the limit is more like 0.020" DOC before the machine is thrown out of tram. That said, I have found that a 2" face mill is more appropriate for harder materials on this type of mill. Several videos among these photos that demonstrate use of both 4" and 2" on my baby Bridgeport are here if you're interested.

David, that was very helpful. I find videos like yours to be helpful not for just the performance aspect of the mill but also for how it sounds.

 

[7milesup]

Thanks @mksj ! That was very helpful also.

Now, one last question. The large mill does not have a straight counterbore where the arbor screw seats, but rather this one has a taper to it. How do I deal with that? Would I need a tapered arbor screw or is there a chamfer on the screws that would allow it to seat?

 

[mksj]

They use a wedge style retaining screw with a 1.5" shell mill arbor. I would call Seco to verify below arbor screw, there seemed to be different versions of this cutter, yours uses screw insert retainers and does not show up in their database.

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[ddickey]

Remember facemills have an axial as well as a radial rake angle.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

from my point of view, and it's just an opinion, I'd sell both of those and put the money into a nice Glacern SEHT/SEKT 2" facemill. Free cutting, easy to find inserts ranging from ridiculously cheap to reasonably priced, nice size for a knee mill. Those industrial ones that you have a great, but the insert prices will make your eyeballs fall out and the large one will be a challenge to mount on an R8 mill.

For reference I had a some facemills that sort of size in that large auction lot that I'm still working through and they went for $60-100 each depending on size and brand. A fraction of new price, but to be honest most of the money is in the inserts not the cutter body.

 

[pontiac428]

I'll echo what Matt said. I have a few face mills up to 6", but the 2" Kennametal gets the most use. You get to a point in diameter when your mill's power will ask for a flycutter instead. Flycutters can be set up to leave a beautiful finish as well, so the only advantage to the face mill is speed.

 

[Parlo]

The 4" will be fine on your machine. Larger diameters will need shallower cuts but cover more area. You may need to plough down some plastic in the future where depth of cut is not a problem. I've used a 4" high shear on my Bridgeport for over 25 years without any issues. If you subscribe to the flycutting belief of better finishes with one tooth you can remove all but one insert and you have a solid balanced flycutter.
If you encounter excessive chatter using a large cutter, try the tangential approach shown in the video. It uses a 6" diameter cutter on the edge of 1/4" thick steel stock, sticking out the vice 3" with a 1/4" depth of cut!