Small face mill using tangential cutter

That's basically what I was thinking. I have a couple of fly cutters that are not sloped on the bottom liked the one Tim9 linked to, though the cheap sloped ones are most likely the ones I would sacrifice. Might be able to make a non-sloped (er, flat) one dual-purpose, though.
 
Some good discussion here! Based on my experience with seeing how an apparently small change in the cutter profile can greatly alter its performance, all I can say is: try your ideas and see how they work.

For now, I've gone back to my original cutter profile, it seems to be much more forgiving. If I mill steel with it, I guess I'll just have to sharpen it more -- but that is really easy to do since it's just one facet. Maybe an in-between angle is the sweet spot. Also relatively easy to try.
 
I ground a round bit of tool steel, just ground to the angle that looked right.
It was fixed into a chunk of flat steel that was held on the lathe face plate making a large dia fly cutter.
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Potd - Project Of The Day- What Did You Do In Your Shop Today?

:thinking: Mark, what will you use a drill chuck on a live center for? :dunno: That is a good question.:rofl: Seriously , I used to think the same thing until I needed it. One use is machining small work or doing machining on a bolt or screw. I had a hard time machining grooves in some SHCS...
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post 8028
This one just used a square bit but I also used a round bit for experimenting.
It was interesting rotating the tool bit so it contacted the work at different angles and some angles of attack produced very fine surface finishes reminiscent of a vertical shearing bit
https://gadgetbuilder.com/VerticalShearBit.html
 
I did the same thing as you Savarin. It’s been a while, but I played around with it a while until I was taking really paper thin cuts of aluminum.
FWIW, .... Joe Pie has a good video on this subject of tweaking a flycutter

 
savarin said:
It was fixed into a chunk of flat steel that was held on the lathe face plate making a large dia fly cutter.
Click to expand...

That reminds me of a "facing cutter" I saw the other night when re-reading the George Thomas UPT book. His design has two cutters - for balance, presumably. Neat little cutter.
 
Yep... that’s a great book. I forgot all about it .... And obviously misplaced it somewhere around my house. I have to look for it. He has a lot of interesting projects. Some dated, but some worth a look at in my opinion.
 
Tim9 said:
Yep... that’s a great book. I forgot all about it .... And obviously misplaced it somewhere around my house. I have to look for it. He has a lot of interesting projects. Some dated, but some worth a look at in my opinion.
Click to expand...
FIND IT! Quick!
I just checked on amazon for it, $855.58 :cool:
 
I thought I paid @65.00 for it. I do remember seeing some crazy prices for it but after a bit of searching I finally found it for @ 65. 00

But, the exchange rate was probably different. I just checked that link... and with shipping to USA... and Pounds to dollars, It comes to @ 53.00 now.
anywho.... it’s a really interesting book with lots of great pictures of Harolds projects. And he goes into great detail with his descriptions. In any case, I know I can find it. It’s around and i will put my hand on it to take another look. I do remember being thoroughly impressed with his dividing head build. Just beautiful workmanship.
 
Homebrewed
Really enjoyed your article
Small Face Mill Using Tangential Cutter
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Small face mill using tangential cutter

I recently made a small face mill that uses a 3/16" diameter HSS rod for the cutter. The idea was to replace an indexable face mill with something that would handle interrupted cuts better (I always seem to chip the inserts). I like the concept of the tangential cutter because they're dead...
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You have no idea how long I have been looking for someone to design a simple Tangential Fly Cutter
This design can be built to order to fit the size of the project.
As I am limited to things which can be done on an SX2 Mini-Mill as well.
I also got your Excel spreadsheet design as well many thanks.
This may be a very worthwhile mill project.
I love the single concept of the tangential cutter, I have the Diamond Tool Holders for my C4 Lathe and they work excellent. I spend a lot of time sharpening my tools using the Tormek. while the initial shape takes longer once in the final shape the it requires a touch up it is dead easy and they are super sharp and virtually burr free.
Now you have a challenge to build the same tool to cut the 0.5 inch slot for the arbor, which would also prove another point of it concept. ha ha
Great project and one of the first Fly cutters where someone actually took time to design a simple version which can be scaled to the task at hand. Using the Round Tool HHS Tool Steel Bit makes for an excellent finish. I sent a lot of time in the lab learning to use a Fly Cutter. We used it to provide a precision fit on microwave Waveguide (Plumbing Fittings) many people tried several methods and we found cutting the line to with in 1/6 inch to length and make the precision fitted length using the fly cutter gave the best fit and the guys in the field who then installed the final product never had any issue and the final alignment if the microwave system at the broadband frequencies we were using demanded the extra attention to detail to get the required bandwidth. Then we silver soldered the pieces together. Done correctly there were no seams and no solder infiltration of the connector on the inside which is where precision waveguide is required. the small systems were 3 inch by 1 inch the larger was over 6 inch.
All that has now been replaced with fibre optics.
Great Job
Dave C
 
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