One MOW Flycutter

I started this little project before cold weather settled into the south, north central Florida. Cut a piece of 1 inch thick cold roll to get a disc a little larger than 5 inches.

Drilled and bored the center to .750 -.05 for shrinkage. Heated the disc up to a nice red-ish tone and shut down the flame. Dropping the shaft that was in a cut frozen in the freezer over night. After sticking it in the hole hit it once with a hammer to set the shaft. Went to my South Bend 10K putting my ER32 collet chuck on and a .750 collet. Spinning went very well, the first time I turned anything over 3 inches.

Today I pulled it off the shelf and well the humidity had done its job. Several rust spots. Milled a slot on the outside diameter to mount a tool.

Then went to my private stock I picked up many years ago. A nice piece of metal with a HSS insert brazed on the tip ( or what I made the tip ). Cut a profile with relief where needed. A little bit of milling and a little bit of filing and fit like a bug in a rug.

After getting it all together I had to test it out but did not have anything large enough to give it a good work out. Then I thought about the old aluminum I had melted years ago and poured into triangle molds. Stuck one in the vise and took a cut from one of the angle side until I cut a nice shelf to be able to flip it and take a rather good cut. A 2 hp motor running it just mowed the aluminum off. I tried and pushed it by dropping down .250 and mowed it off. Had popcorn flying and did not miss a beat. That 1 inch stock really made a big difference.

There is nothing better than a tool that preforms as needed.

 

I have been doing some cutting with it and it works great. I had several large carbide cutter that was too big for my lathes so I milled two of them down to a slide fit and drilled. That worked very nice.
Watch the chips they can get very hot.
Nelson

 

I have a fly cutter I made several months ago. It uses a insert holder that uses the odd corners of a CNMG 432. Here is the video of the build

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Michael and JD
I am not all that pleased with the MOW cutter. I've tried many cutters on it and I just do not get the finish I was hoping for. It does a nice job on aluminium but for steel, I'm just not thrilled. I tried a mist blast on it, it is just one of them things I will use on aluminium because I cast a lot of what I do.
James
Sorry about the tap. I am not too confident in power tapping, I do not mind letting the mill run in reverse and withdrawing the tap. That is a nice BP you have, mine does not have the quick feed so I chase it as it comes out. Looking go keep the chips coming.
Nelson

 

Hey Nelson.
From what I can see from your pictures, it looks like you don't have much of a relief angle on the tool bit. I don't know if it is just from the angle I see it,but can you post a better angle of the bit? Joe Picsincski has a YouTube clip of grinding a HSS bit for flycutting accrilic I think and that shows that when you grind the angle og the tool so that the cutting edge is not pointed forward, but the relief angle is over hanging the cutting edge. I think I am messing up my explanation of how it looks. It would be better if you see the clip I think. I will try to post the link.

Michael.

 

Michael
I have used about 8 different cutters. I made an insert tool and I do not count it for very much because carbide is known to not work well with interrupted cuts. I went to the HSS and got the best finish because they are much stronger and what can be ground will make all the difference. Like I said I will use it on all my aluminium because I cast a lot. I have a few things in mind, it just a matter of time.
Nelson

 

Hi Guys,

I've done all sorts of things with fly cutters, with great success ! A very useful versatile tool.

 

I have the old step pulley Bridgeport. Some say they beat up the machine and you should avoid them at all costs.
I like the finish I get with my HSS cutting tools and the economy of using a quality fly cutter.
Thoughts?

 

If you try to hog metal of, yes you will beat the bearings out of the spindle. Light cuts can produce almost mirrow finish. I find the HSS and Cobolt cut the best.
Nelson

 

Michael
I have used about 8 different cutters. I made an insert tool and I do not count it for very much because carbide is known to not work well with interrupted cuts. I went to the HSS and got the best finish because they are much stronger and what can be ground will make all the difference. Like I said I will use it on all my aluminium because I cast a lot. I have a few things in mind, it just a matter of time.
Nelson

"not known to work well with interrupted cuts" ??!! have you not ever seen what a face mill can do? They remove gobs of material with little tooling cost, and quite quickly at that.

 

Thanks for your post, Nelson. And also, Jim, thanks for posting your 2-part video. I made a fly cutter last week after studying this thread and put the results on another thread. Here's a link to it:

https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/fly-cutter-fab-before-i-jump-in.74097/

Regards,
Terry