Tooling Arbors And Chell Mill Sizing

Keith Foor

Keith Foor

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I am looking to purchase some tooling for my XLO mill. It's a 604 and 2.5 HP. Much bigger than the standard Bridgeport. R8 collet design. I am looking on fee-bay for shell mills and of course they have anything and everything from small to 6 inch plus. I know there is some limitation due to the R-8 collet but I don't know what diameter is the MAX I should be looking at. Also, there are numerous arbors available in R-8 but some are listed with inch dimensions and others seem to have some "number size" similar to Morse Taper tooling. Is there a chart some where that will spell out the sizing or is some decryption of the other numbering of the arbor to decipher that will tell me what I need to know? I am of course a hobbyist and not flush with a tooling budget that can afford to be buying stuff to sit and need to buy other stuff to complete the arbor, shell mill, carbide combination that I need to be effective and not overload my machine.

Thanks in advance.
K4
 
I think this really depends on how big of projects you take on over mill torque. For most things 2.3 or 3" HSS shell mill would suffice.
 
The thing is that I don't really know at this point. The project I have right now is a tool grinder that is plate based. The plate is actually 3 pieces welded together forming the base that the grinder will set on and the tool holders will slide across. the welds were made and ground flush but the overall surface of the plates needs to be squared up at some point. I used a fly cutter for the initial cleanup but that was prior to welding them all together and I am not sure that is the way to go on a piece that is 10 inches across and 12 deep.
 
If you're looking for efficient, fast, and productive surface milling a face mill might be better than a shell mill.

As long as your welds aren't somehow hardened a flycutter would still work for facing. And is a lot cheaper than carbide inserts for a face mill! :)
 
I purchased a 6" Sandvik insert face mill on Ebay that mounted on, I believe, a 1.5" R8 shell mill arbor. The inserts cost me more than the face mill did. It works pretty well. Just be sure you can find an arbor for it before you purchase, or you will wind up having to make one. The minumum speed of your mill will determine what size you can handle and in what material. You can probably go up to 400 fpm or so in mild steel with coated carbide end mills, which for a 6" tool gives 255 RPM.
 
My biggest is a mitsubishi asx445 3 inch 6 flute, it's awesome on my normal bridgeport clone, 3hp, I can run it at .100 doc full width in steel all day with no grunts, I've only turned the new inserts once out of 4. You can run a 6 inch or bigger if you want, just know that the bigger it is the more you gotta dial everything back because of rigidity.
 
Something to add, when I bought my face mill, I had to get the brochure on it to find out what size Pilot hole it had, and then order an Arbor accordingly, I had to make a spacer washer for the bolt....
You want to make sure that if you buy somethin used on ebay that they still make inserts for it.
 
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Chevy did you buy it new , I'm guessing you have to use Mitsubishi inserts ,where did you get it from?
 
Used, eBay, and yes mitsubishi inserts, but they are awesome. Mitsubishi has a deal you buy a 10 pack of inserts get a free cutter head, 10 inserts per inch of cutter, buy 3 packs of ten, get a 3inch cutter, 1 pack of ten, 1 inch cutter
 
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