Face Mills Without The "Chip Blizzard"?

[ChazzC]

One of the first things I made for my mill was a set of Swarf Shields, based on Frank Hoose's design. They have evolved over the years as I changed the location of the vise and made T-Slot inserts instead of using table covers:




The rear shields attach using the threaded holes in the back of the vise:



But now that I've "permanently" mounted taller outside jaws, I'll need to modify things again.


I have two sets of four, 6" & 4" tall:




They nest so don't take up a lot of space when not in use. I usually only use them when making a lot of chips:



First pass with a 50mmØ Face Mill (5, round inserts) on the 4" edge of a pair of 1/2" thick 6061 plates (didn't fully cleanup, so subsequent passes made bigger piles); there are some escapees, but not many.

 

[pontiac428]

Nice scalable chip box, @ChazzC. Up until now, I've just stood there with a garden hose, spraying down the stream of chips so they get heavy and stay on the ground. Then I push them out to the curb with a leaf blower. Sometimes a snow shovel helps.

 

[G-ManBart]

Thanks folks....all great idea about technique and guards/boxes. I'd still be interested in hearing if anyone has noticed a difference in the chip shower from shell mills with different insert types...just a gee whiz sort of thing. I may just order another style for the arbor I have and do a comparison...can't hurt, right?

 

[ChazzC]

Nice scalable chip box, @ChazzC. Up until now, I've just stood there with a garden hose, spraying down the stream of chips so they get heavy and stay on the ground. Then I push them out to the curb with a leaf blower. Sometimes a snow shovel helps.

When I first used this cutter I was amazed with the volume of chips until I thought about what was going on. Then I started thinking about selling the chips to the military for use as chaff (what they use to confuse radar/missile tracking): cute little crescent moon shapes.

 

[pontiac428]

Inspired by idea of a home shop Chinese weather balloon countermeasure system using chips as chaff... Glitter bombs... James Bond car traffic radar obfuscation systems... Running the chip vac in reverse...