Ken, let me play Devil's Advocate here for a minute. In your original post, you were looking for tooling to face aluminum and steel parts on a mini-mill. I assume by facing you are looking to produce a flat, smooth surface such as you would require when squaring a part at the start of the project. Is this still the goal or have you moved on to profiling?
Not to detract from the excellent discussion but I raise the question because if you're facing to square parts, end cutting with end mills are not the most efficient way to do that. Face mills will do it but your little mill is somewhat limited by the size you can use so, again, this is not the most efficient way to do the job.
If you are looking to face each surface so you can square it then the most efficient tool for that is a flycutter. It is not the only way, true, but it is the most efficient way and is likely to provide the best surface finish. If you are looking to face and size a part, a good flycutter will do this as well. Not only that, a flycutter requires the least amount of power for the surface area it cuts provided you are going for a facing cut instead of stock removal.
As I re-read this thread tonight I sort of got lost in all the information and while all of it has been interesting and educational, I wonder if the goal hasn't been lost.
Hi mike,I think this thread like many others I've seen,took a different direction for many good reasons but I , was looking for a cutting tool that was faster than my 1/2" roughing end mill to square parts, I never was after a nice finish, just to square up stock I have mainly used my roughing end mill, remember mike I could only take no more than .020" DOC with each pass on mild steel,( bit more on Aluminum ) so I said to myself,wouldn't it be great if I could do the same thing but faster?
This thread as I said made me learn what could actually would work with a mini mill without spending money to find out
, based on what I've learned and what I know with my mini mill, I finally bought two end mills, one is a 3/4"(fine tooth) roughing end mill like Dabbler was suggesting in post #53 , to be used in facing roughing,end milling, squaring parts etc.if I needed a better finish I do have a fly cutter and will use that or my 3/4" regular 4 flute end mill, I tried this approach on a small piece of aluminum and I loved it.
My second purchase has not arrived yet but I kinda went against recommendations of the majority here and bought a 1" indexable end mill with two TPG222 inserts,3/4" shank, I have a good feeling it'll do just fine for light facing jobs, we'll see how it turns out.
I have come to the conclusion that end mills are my best friend as long as I have a small mill, I'm kind of resigned to the fact that I need to go slow and shallow with this mill ,I do like my fly cutter but all I have used it for was for a nice finishing job on a wider than usual stock,I normally don't need a nice finish and don't use wide stock so again,end mills have become my goto cutting tool.
Thank you again Mikey for all your help whether here or behind the scene with your pms and great advice.
Thank you all for contributions,thoughts and comments, I can safely say my initial inquiry has been answered and I think I have made an informed decision based on what I've learned from this thread.two thumbs up to every one.
