Maximum tool stick out on a fly cutter

ZombiWelder said:
Its a Horror Freight 6X26 , I bought it used and maybe got a bit lucky: no voids in the casting, or any other defects, spindle runout is under .001.
Click to expand...
With a mill that light, balance becomes more important, actually balance and eccentric weight combined. You don't want it to walk off the table... or damage the mill
ZombiWelder said:
Yeah I was wondering about the attachment of that shank , it looks press fit or something .
Click to expand...
My first impression was that it is threaded on, which might be a problem if it unscrews.
 
It looks like a handy tool, not sure if shaft is screwed on or not. I always weld them on. I've made a few like it in the past, easily balanced with the extra holes. and no reason why you couldn't put more holes and increase diameter. A simple way to improve balance is to drill and tap a longitudinal hole through the body and put a grub screw in the light end winding the screw in and out will fine tune the balance.
 
Do what works, if something does not work you will not do it again.

This is called experience.
 
P. Waller said:
Do what works, if something does not work you will not do it again.

This is called experience.
Click to expand...
Sometimes it's called history repeating itself. ;)
Can be good. Can be bad. Research is your friend. That's what the forum is for.

Tom
 
higgite said:
Sometimes it's called history repeating itself. ;)
Can be good. Can be bad. Research is your friend. That's what the forum is for.

Tom
Click to expand...
Such work may be done several ways, facing it with a smaller diameter tool will leave tooling marks that many find objectionable, doing it very slowly with a large enough tool will not.

History tells us that the prefered method is to rough mill it then grind to finished size and surface finish. If I would have recommended this method many would have remarked that many home shops do not have the equipment for this and sending the part to a grinding shop would be costly.

My point being that if you do not try it you will not know if it can be done, the worst that can happen is that you scrap the first one. If it were customer supplied material and you can not easily replace one part then by all means go the traditional route that will surely work.

If a hobby project stretch your legs and have at it and see if it works, if no one tried a different approach to a problem you would be riding a horse to work everyday
 
P. Waller said:
Such work may be done several ways, facing it with a smaller diameter tool will leave tooling marks that many find objectionable, doing it very slowly with a large enough tool will not.

History tells us that the prefered method is to rough mill it then grind to finished size and surface finish. If I would have recommended this method many would have remarked that many home shops do not have the equipment for this and sending the part to a grinding shop would be costly.

My point being that if you do not try it you will not know if it can be done, the worst that can happen is that you scrap the first one. If it were customer supplied material and you can not easily replace one part then by all means go the traditional route that will surely work.

If a hobby project stretch your legs and have at it and see if it works, if no one tried a different approach to a problem you would be riding a horse to work everyday
Click to expand...
More like walking, and not to work, but hunting and gathering.
 
Be aware that a large flycutter will magnify the runout of your machine spindle- if your machine has a quill be sure to lock it tight before milling
Personally on a machine like yours I wouldn't go bigger than about a 3" cutter (6" swath) in aluminum. Smaller still for steel.
 
higgite said:
Sometimes it's called history repeating itself. ;)
Can be good. Can be bad. Research is your friend. That's what the forum is for.

Tom
Click to expand...
Sometimes it's called maimed or dead. Pushing the envelope is great macho fun until we find the limits, then it's game over -- sometimes permanently.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top