What do I put on the end of this arbor?

J

joe_m

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I've got one of these milling arbors for my mill - it holds things with a 1-1/4" bored hole:

shellmillarbor.jpg

I have nothing to put on it though so I've gone shopping. It seems that the arbors are much cheaper than the attachments.
I can go with one of these:
attach1.jpg
It looks to me like that is just a fancy expensive fly-cutter but with multiple tips. So it's good for surfacing a flat piece of metal, but not for hogging off big chunks in one pass. I can do that job with my generic fly-cutter for 1/10th the price.

My other option is one of these:
attach2.jpg
Although they're cheaper than the first option, they're still not cheap. They look to me like it just turns the arbor thing into a big fat end-mill. I've got end-mills out the badonkadonk (did I use that word correctly? It's so hard keeping up with the hip cats' lingo.) so this would just be a bigger end mill. I'm not sure of the advantage in that over a regular end mill except it's costing me more per piece of swarf. I can also get one of these in what is called a hogging cut, which is supposed to take off big chunks quickly I guess and then I'd go through with a regular end-mill to clean it up?


Like I said - I've already got a few generic fly-cutters and when I get the grind just right I can get some nice shiny surfaces. And I've got end-mills in every configuration and shape up to about 1" thick. So do any of the two things above bring any new capabilities to the table? Is there some other use for the arbor I'm missing? If you had to recommend one or the other or both then where would I find the most affordable (Grizzly doesn't seem to have anything that fits on the arbor except the first attachment and it's over $200).?

thanks
Joe

shellmillarbor.jpg attach1.jpg attach2.jpg
 
I got one with my mill when I bought it new 20+ years ago. It came with a 4 bit (Lathe style tools) flycutter.

It's been sitting in the tray in the stand of my mill ever since the day I got the mill. I never found the need for it.

Gary
 
Typical use is a shell mill, but as for making the most of that cutter, most R-8 spindles are questionably rigid. It would allow considerably more metal removal rate than your flycutter, even with the rigidity and HP of most BP clones. Now the mini-mills with R-8? Wast of money. I have a couple, and they do get used periodically. The larger "end mill" cutter is good for slab milling on aluminum even with a BP.

Want to get rid of it?
 
I got one of those shell mill arbors to with my mill but nothing to go with it that came with the mill. I was planning on getting a face mill with a new shell arbor since the one in question seems cheap. In the end I decided to go with an integrated arbo FM & then I got a really good deal on one locally for the exact one I was lokibg to buy. I just threw mine in the "tool kit" that came with mill which is stored away in the back of the mill's stand. That box will probably never see daylight again.
 
So if I'm reading the responses right then it's not worth using, nothing I put on it will do anything that what I already have won't do so for now I'll move it to the bottom of the want-list. Next time I'm in Tucson I'll see if Kent's Tools has anything extra cheap laying in the bins just so I can play around with it.

Tony's reply kinda confused me a bit. I don't do aluminum. I'm learning on steel, mostly mystery stuff. I don't have any problem with rigidity in my mill though - it's a million times sturdier/heavier than my old mill/drill. Are you saying that if my mill was more rigid/stronger I could use one of those shell-end-mills to hog off aluminum? What about steel?

thanks
Joe
 
Sorry for causing any confusion, Joe. What I meant was that a 3" shell mill could and probably should be pushed with a 15 hp spindle to get the most use out of it. You have to feed a large cutter like that heavily to stay "under" the chip. Cutting chips too thin, especially in steels, makes the chip and surface being cut mostly work-hardened. So the idea is to up the chip load per tooth so that each flute bites in deep enough to be below the hardened surface. I'm thinking that 2 hp on a Bridgeport won't quite have the brawn in steel to do that, whereas in aluminum, it stands a fair chance of being able to take being loaded properly.

On the inserted cutter, using positive rake inserts, you should be able to carry the load on a BP, unless you try some large diameter cutter such a 6". A BP should handle a 2 1/2 - 3" all right. But neither shell mills nor inserted face mills are meant to take too many baby cuts. Not that they couldn't or shouldn't be used in finishing, but you can removed a lot of material quickly if you have the hp and rigid spindle. The inserted mill would be worth getting if you need to remove lots of material. Just don't get crazy with the diameter. What mill do you have?
 
Thanks Tony. I'm using a Taiwanese knock-off from Select Machinery. It's powered by a 2hp 3-phase motor and is very solid - something I really appreciate as a novice because it makes the machine much more forgiving when I push the limits on feed/speed.

The insert type end-mill is even more out of my budget than the shell-mill would be so this will really go to the bottom of the list* but I'll pick one up eventually. I am able to take .1 cuts with the normal 1-bit style flycutter equipped with an el-cheapo pre-brazed carbide toolbit so it's not a major loss.

* I run a small online used tool store and any income from that is my only real budget for buying tools/tooling. I just ordered the HF bandsaw last week so it will be a couple more months until I'm ready for the next purchase.
 
I have used the insertable face mill frequently, in fact I just ordered a 2 1/2" one for my home shop. On tough material I would stay around .05" for rough cuts if you are taking the full width of the cutter. The max depth on those are around .236" if I remember correctly. I would take them any day over the triangle type mills you see with the insert parallle to the Z axis. The 45 deg gives you a much better cutting mill.
 
GaryK said:
I got one with my mill when I bought it new 20+ years ago. It came with a 4 bit (Lathe style tools) flycutter.

It's been sitting in the tray in the stand of my mill ever since the day I got the mill. I never found the need for it.

Gary
Click to expand...

Gary That 4 tool fly cutter is a very useful face mill.
You can grind all 4 bits with different rakes, radii etc and set eack bit to take off more material than the one befor it.
That gives you the ability to rough and finish in one cut. Like me onecut jimmy

The"One of these " is a shell mill. Jobbing shops find them very useful.
Oh yeah those hip people are using the standard Nomenclature of the machine business. They actually have books on it.
Remember that 4 bit fly cutter can really make life easier and maching more enjoyable when you master grinding the tools and setting theem in the holder. There are many configurations that work for different situations. Good Luck with your mill.
 
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