- Joined
- Nov 27, 2012
- Messages
- 7,863
I do have a 2.5" facemill which I use a lot but I also like fly cutters as they give a better surface finish (IMO). The FM can hog out more material than a fly cutter though.
On my project list was to make a fly cutter that will cover up to 6". I didn't want to make a big conventional styl fly cutter with a long cutter hanging out, I'd like to keep my body parts intact while I'm alive. Well I came across one very similar to what I had in mind to make. It's shop made but not by me.
With it, I got 2 other fly cutters for not much more. I don't own any other fly cutters myself so I figured why not. They are all made of 1045 & have 3/4" shanks. I have only tested the big one as that's the only one I cared about.
Well, they weren't as nice as I hoped them to be. For the smaller ones, the body to shank weren't as concentric as I would have liked. No big deal really as they are fly cutters but I was able to fix that up myself so I'm still happy with my purchase. Knowing what I know now after purchasing them, I probably wouldn't have bought them again but it did save me a lot of time not having to make them myself.
Here's what I got.
The big one is 5" dia & can easily cover over 6". It holds 2 tool bits. I'm not actually using 2 bits for cutting though, I only installed the other one there for balancing & it's set higher than the other so only one is actually cutting.
Test cut right out the box using the China C5 tool bits it came with on 6061. Finish is not bad considering I'm using C5 & I did not touch up the cutting edge or anything. Could be a lot better that's for sure.
The big cutter is heavy, I don't like the straight shank on it so I'll be converting to to R8. I also have a new tool bit coming. I'll post an update here.
On my project list was to make a fly cutter that will cover up to 6". I didn't want to make a big conventional styl fly cutter with a long cutter hanging out, I'd like to keep my body parts intact while I'm alive. Well I came across one very similar to what I had in mind to make. It's shop made but not by me.
With it, I got 2 other fly cutters for not much more. I don't own any other fly cutters myself so I figured why not. They are all made of 1045 & have 3/4" shanks. I have only tested the big one as that's the only one I cared about.
Well, they weren't as nice as I hoped them to be. For the smaller ones, the body to shank weren't as concentric as I would have liked. No big deal really as they are fly cutters but I was able to fix that up myself so I'm still happy with my purchase. Knowing what I know now after purchasing them, I probably wouldn't have bought them again but it did save me a lot of time not having to make them myself.
Here's what I got.
The big one is 5" dia & can easily cover over 6". It holds 2 tool bits. I'm not actually using 2 bits for cutting though, I only installed the other one there for balancing & it's set higher than the other so only one is actually cutting.
Test cut right out the box using the China C5 tool bits it came with on 6061. Finish is not bad considering I'm using C5 & I did not touch up the cutting edge or anything. Could be a lot better that's for sure.
The big cutter is heavy, I don't like the straight shank on it so I'll be converting to to R8. I also have a new tool bit coming. I'll post an update here.