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- Dec 24, 2020
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- 1,042
I've been looking at decent shell mills/face mills for a while now and haven't taken the leap because I'm mostly trying to buy better stuff at a slower pace now...sort of the buy once, cry once concept and it wasn't near the top of my priority list. Still, I thought it would be handy to have one, and finally decided to try one of the cheap ones on eBay that gets shipped to you direct from China. It's for my Bridgeport 2J 2hp, so I went with a shell mill that's 2" in diameter and uses SEKT inserts (four inserts for this diameter). I also got the matching R8 arbor to go with it. For the arbor, shell mill and a box of 8 inserts it was roughly $70 including shipping. I figured if nothing else it would probably work for fast, rough, stock removal if not fine finish work.
Today I decided to give it a shot as I had a job where I needed to take a bunch off some aluminum blocks (was making a set of V-shaped pipe jaws with stepped teeth). The blocks were mounted in the vise together and milled as one. Considering the inserts are intended for steel I was pretty happy with the finish I got. It certainly feels really smooth when you run a finger over it. I was running around 1000rpm (random guess at what might work) and I will say that the chips looked good, and it sure makes a lot of them!
I'll link the the eBay listing for the shell mill if you want to take a look. There shipping was a bit hard to follow and I kept getting updates with different arrival times (a day earlier each time mostly), etc. It wound up taking about two weeks from order to delivery, which seemed pretty reasonable...it was some kind of UPS international service. I was a bit surprised when it arrived because the form they use on the outside for customs had different items listed and a total cost of about $50. At first I thought maybe the sent the wrong stuff, but it was correct, just a mismatched shipping form. I suspect they just use the same import form over and over and since it's under the typical $200 value the customs folks don't pay attention.
Some pics of the assembled unit and the finish I got. There was a touch of aluminum buildup on the inserts, but not much and I probably removed .500" from the blocks, so a fairly decent amount. I'm definitely going to get some different inserts now that I have some faith it'll work reasonably well.
One disclaimer about the closeup of the finish...I deburred the edges and made a light pass over all sides when i realized I hadn't taken the surface finish picture. They actually looked a bit better before I ran them over the wheel (3M Scotch-Brite EXL) because they didn't have the straight lines showing. I'll try to remember to follow up with better pics and include some steel as well.
Today I decided to give it a shot as I had a job where I needed to take a bunch off some aluminum blocks (was making a set of V-shaped pipe jaws with stepped teeth). The blocks were mounted in the vise together and milled as one. Considering the inserts are intended for steel I was pretty happy with the finish I got. It certainly feels really smooth when you run a finger over it. I was running around 1000rpm (random guess at what might work) and I will say that the chips looked good, and it sure makes a lot of them!
I'll link the the eBay listing for the shell mill if you want to take a look. There shipping was a bit hard to follow and I kept getting updates with different arrival times (a day earlier each time mostly), etc. It wound up taking about two weeks from order to delivery, which seemed pretty reasonable...it was some kind of UPS international service. I was a bit surprised when it arrived because the form they use on the outside for customs had different items listed and a total cost of about $50. At first I thought maybe the sent the wrong stuff, but it was correct, just a mismatched shipping form. I suspect they just use the same import form over and over and since it's under the typical $200 value the customs folks don't pay attention.
45° KM12 50-22 4Flute 50mm Face Milling Cutter Face Mill+10Pc SEKT1204AFN-FK | eBay
• Inserts type: SEKT1204(10pc). KM12-50 22-4T indexable face milling cutter 4 Flute end mill for CNC LATHE. • Color: sliver. 1× KM12-50 22-4T.
www.ebay.com
Some pics of the assembled unit and the finish I got. There was a touch of aluminum buildup on the inserts, but not much and I probably removed .500" from the blocks, so a fairly decent amount. I'm definitely going to get some different inserts now that I have some faith it'll work reasonably well.
One disclaimer about the closeup of the finish...I deburred the edges and made a light pass over all sides when i realized I hadn't taken the surface finish picture. They actually looked a bit better before I ran them over the wheel (3M Scotch-Brite EXL) because they didn't have the straight lines showing. I'll try to remember to follow up with better pics and include some steel as well.