Boring head for fly cutting?

I made a fly cutter bar for my 3" boring head for one job that I wanted a single pattern on the surface. Seems like a lot of stick out but worked fine. It is a lot of pry on the boring head, take light cuts. One thing a fly cutter is really good at is showing how good your head has bee adjusted.
 
making a fly cutter head is not hard at all.
I have a bunch of old fly cutters, but didn't like them. So I made my own...better than the old company made units.
 
I also would pass on that tool.
While I am sure it would work, a boring head is a precision tool and should be used as such. A boring head is not designed for heavy side loads of plowing thru material sideways. Just like you would not use a mic as a C clamp, it will do it but that is not what it is made for (and would make most of us cry if you did).
Second point is that the position of the insert is not ideal for fly cutting or boring but would work better than nothing for either. I like HSS for fly cutting so that it is easy to grind whatever cutting edge is best for the job at hand.
 
Flyinfool said:
I also would pass on that tool.
While I am sure it would work, a boring head is a precision tool and should be used as such. A boring head is not designed for heavy side loads of plowing thru material sideways. Just like you would not use a mic as a C clamp, it will do it but that is not what it is made for (and would make most of us cry if you did).
Second point is that the position of the insert is not ideal for fly cutting or boring but would work better than nothing for either. I like HSS for fly cutting so that it is easy to grind whatever cutting edge is best for the job at hand.
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I'm not sure how important the #1 is, you can use a boring head with a cutter straight out for larger holes, right? So this isn't much different?

That said, your second point is the bigger one! About 60% of the advantage of a fly cutter is the ability to grind your own cutters!
 
When boring a hole most of the force is straight up the axis and very little side load. When fly cutting there is very little axial force and mostly side force.
With the vertical cutting edge that tool will minimize the axial force while maximizing the radial force. Opposite what the boring head is designed for.
 
Flyinfool said:
When boring a hole most of the force is straight up the axis and very little side load. When fly cutting there is very little axial force and mostly side force.
Click to expand...
*shrug* I could buy that being a concern.
 
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