Cutter Position Question

R

Rick H

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I have a question for you Pro's and Pro-Am's that perhaps someone can give me an answer to. I have been practicing cutting small dovetail slots in some aluminum blocks. From what I have seen and read, the proper way to do this procedure is to use a straight cut end mill to take out as much material as possible and then switch to the dovetail cutter to put the dovetail slot in. Where I am having some difficulty is in re-establishing the positioning of the dovetail cutter after swapping it out with the end mill cutter. What seems to invariably happen is that my dovetail cutter is either too high or too low which in turn messes up the final cut. Is there some solution I am unaware of in order to re-position the dovetail cutter after changing it out with the end mill keeping it at the same height the end mill was at? I have tried several different ideas that I had, but the only one that came close was to put machinist dye on the slot in the work piece and come in very slowly with the dove tail cutter until I saw the dye just beginning to be removed and then make the final cut.

Thanks in advance for any help on this!!

Rick H.
 
I believe that you have answered your own question if you are using a mill with the tools held in collets.
 
So using the dye and slowly coming in and/or down on the work piece is the correct procedure? I had one idea that didn't work out due to the collet moving up as it was tightened.

Rick H
 
You can also put paper or foil between the cutter and work and bring the cutter closer. When the paper jams you are within the width of the paper.

Caster
 
I should have mentioned in my original post that I have a Grizzly G0729 and it uses R-8 collets for the end mills. Thanks for the responses. I thought there might be a more "scientific" way of doing this that was unknown to me.

Rick H.
 
Rick H said:
I should have mentioned in my original post that I have a Grizzly G0729 and it uses R-8 collets for the end mills. Thanks for the responses. I thought there might be a more "scientific" way of doing this that was unknown to me.

Rick H.
Click to expand...
You can use a toolsetter but it will not be much faster then the way that you are doing it now, it will also cost more.
 
Caster's method of using paper or foil is a good method. Cigarette paper works very well for this due to it's thinness.

Vlad
 
I use paper or dye depending on the situation. Normally paper on the mill. Most note book paper is 0.003, so it makes a good gauge. Many times on the surface grinder I'll use dye.
 
for down and dirty, quick off- i use this method,

after switching tooling, just snug the endmill and return it to the work.
put paper on the work, lower the cutter to the paper and tighten up the endmill,
set and check the X and Z then,
back the tool form the work, fire up the mill and take the cut without looking back.
 
Thanks for the responses guys, I appreciate the help.

Rick H.
 
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