Maximum Milling Cutter Diameter

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Green Frog

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I know I've seen it somewhere, but I can't seem to find it now. Can anyone tell me what the maximum diameter would normally be for cutting tools to turn on an arbor on my MFC? I see cutters with a 1" ID bore that go 5" or more for their OD, but I'm thinking I read somewhere that I should limit the OD of cutters I put on my MFCs arbor to 4" or maybe even 3". Can anyone refer me to a paragraph in the shop manual or some other source that definitively says, or is the limit just what you can get the arbor to turn? I know the over arm support sets a sort of limit by its very placement, but I'm guessing I should leave at least some amount of clearance there?? TIA for any help, as usual!

:frog:
 
Rudy Kouhoupt uses 4" slitting saws on a shop made extra short arbor in his videos. I'm thinking 4" would be a bit much for wider cutters. I believe Atlas didn't sell any cutters larger than about 2.5".
 
Thanks. Just thinking in terms of cut clearance now... the OD of the spacers is about 1.25-1.50" so if you limit yourself to a nominal 2.50" cutter you can only cut a groove of about 0.50" deep (or maybe a little less, really.) Just trying to see what my capabilities might be... :cool:

:frog:
 
Cutter diameter is really dependent on the depth of cut (or clearance) required and the horsepower and rigidity of the machine. It was not uncommon in olden times to mount two cutters on an arbor for straddle milling. At the school shop where I teach we have 6 and 8 inch diameter cutters on the rack. But we also have a Milwaukee Horizontal Milling machine.
 
It's not all about fit. It's also about surface speed. The larger the cutter, the slower the spindle speed must be to hit a target cutting speed. Using your lowest possible RPM (or lowest practical speed for you VFD guys), see how large a cutter you can hit, say.....100 sfpm with. Of course, then enters the material type. You cutting paper, or Stellite?
 
Green Frog said:
I know I've seen it somewhere, but I can't seem to find it now. Can anyone tell me what the maximum diameter would normally be for cutting tools to turn on an arbor on my MFC? :frog:
Click to expand...

The O.P. asked for the maximum that'll turn on an arbor. The answer is 4".

No one mentioned width or tooth count. A whole chapter can be written about speeds vs feeds and various cutters. Perhaps complete books! LOL
 
The key words in my questions were "maximum" and "normally" so I took it as a possibility that there would be at least some "thread drift" with the latter... one man's normal is another man's extreme. Actually, the concept of capacity vs capability is an important one, and even though the Atlas is a solid little machine for it's size and footprint, it's still a little machine, running on a little 110 volt AC motor, so it does have its limitations when it comes to "hogging" operations. I'm wondering whether some of these 4" OD X 1/2" or 5/16" wide (or wider) milling cutters could be utilized, keeping in mind that speed and depth of cut would necessarily be fairly conservative (i.e. slowest speed on back gear and feed and very light cuts.)

:frog:
 
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