Book: "A Treatise on Milling and Milling Machines"

[Apostle10]

I misread your post and thought you had 2 or 3hp at the spindle. I had to look up the size of the Sheldon, yep 22 ipm is a bit much for the mill.
I think it's a bit much for my old piece of American iron.

Is your cutter 4" diameter with 72 teeth? Wouldn't that be more of a saw?:thinking:

What I don't understand is that when using a horizontal mill cutter, there are only so many teeth in contact with the work at any one time. Doesn't matter if you have 72 teeth or 12 teeth, only so many are in contact. They say use the same figures as an end mill. Most times when using an end mill, all the teeth are in contact at the same time.

In the case of this 4" cutter I was using as an example, yes, it's more of a slitting cutter alright. I was just trying to get some idea of how to get to a starting feed and this lead to many other questions and issues. Things like how do you take into account the cutter width and the depth of cut??

I think the number of teeth is important because if the feed is too slow the next tooth is passing over "cut territory" and leads to premature dulling of the cutter. I think it also matters whether its a straight vs a helical cutter. There as so many factors to consider. That's why I'm earnestly searching for direction here. I flipped through my Machinist's Handbook (15 ed) today and it got me essentially nowhere. I will keep asking questions, listening and reading. In the end, it may boil down to "cut-n-try." :rubbinghands:

Mike

 

[mce5802]

22 ipm with a slitting saw=pieces of cutter flying all over the shop. Your math looks right to me though, but I did find a table on a quick web search just now and they had recommended a .001 feed per tooth with a slitting saw on alloy steel and cast iron. That'd be 5.4 ipm, more in the ballpark to my thinking. Fwiw.

 

[4GSR]

On a small mill like this one, you are going to find out that the small feed rates that are built into the mill will work just fine with smaller cutters as the mill is designed for. The cutter you want to use may be too large to run on that small mill. Hand feed the cutter if you want to feed it faster. I think in short time, you will find out quickly your limitations of a small mill.

Don't get me wrong here, I would love to have a small mill like the Sheldon mill to compliment my two Sheldon lathes. Better yet, a Sheldon shaper!

 

[Apostle10]

On a small mill like this one, you are going to find out that the small feed rates that are built into the mill will work just fine with smaller cutters as the mill is designed for. The cutter you want to use may be too large to run on that small mill. Hand feed the cutter if you want to feed it faster. I think in short time, you will find out quickly your limitations of a small mill.

Don't get me wrong here, I would love to have a small mill like the Sheldon mill to compliment my two Sheldon lathes. Better yet, a Sheldon shaper!

Hi Ken,

Thanks for your reply. Most of my work will be on small stuff. The mill comes with a boatload of cutters, some large and some small to the extent of being slitting saws. There are some slab mills in there. I suspect those will be used with very light cuts, if at all. As you said, time will tell.

Right now I'm looking forward to its arrival, then cleaning and painting of it. I'll purchase a VFD and soon be making chips.

Thanks again,

Mike )