End Mill Size Feedback for Neophyte

[Chip Monkey]

Question for bench-size mill users..... For smaller aluminum stuff, say not larger than a cigarette pack, what size and type end mills do you end up using the most? Which one(s) spends the most time in the collet?

 

[jwmelvin]

The 3/8 rougher does a lot for me. But often small ones for particular features.

 

[davidpbest]

Same here. These are the roughers I use - they positively eat 6061. Good review here.

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[rwm]

Same here. These are the roughers I use - they positively eat 6061. Good review here.

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Those things look alien.

 

[homebrewed]

I often use half-inch or smaller end mills for stuff that size, but really it all depends. Do I want a really nice finish across the width of that cig-pack size? In that case I might go for a fly cutter that can do the job in one pass rather than 3 or more. A fly cutter can produce a nice finish, but it's not for removing lots of material unless you've got a good sized machine. I also have to say that you never know what you will want to work on next, so a range of cutters can be useful -- as long as your machine is powerful enough and rigid enough to use 'em. Larger-diameter cutters can be used on small machines but the depth of cut (DOC) has to be reduced.

It also depends a lot on what you're milling -- for instance, plastic vs. steel. I really haven't found a limit on my depth of cut for plastic on my desktop mill with a 500W motor, but it doesn't take much to make it unhappy when milling steel.

Small cutters can be a challenge because it's hard to get the RPMs high enough to keep from breaking them. At work I used a machine that could go up to 100K+ RPMs for smaller (~1/16" and smaller) end mills, so that's something to think about.

I guess the bottom line is that small but not too small should be OK for that scale, but your options depend a lot on what kinds of material you're going to be working on, and the size of features you're creating. Real small or real big can both be problematic, but for different reasons.