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Kerosene is the old stand by for aluminum; use deodorized kero. to avoid the stink; likely cheaper than WD40 or other similar substances; Tapfree also works well.
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Problem parting aluminum with a mill
- Thread starter TXShelbyman
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A keyseater is just a shaper with a round vertical ram/arbor that holds the cutting tool for the keyseat, place the bored hole over the arbor and clamp in position. The arbor moves up and down and the table advances the work at a set feed rate until the desired depth is reached, it is difficult to measure the seat depth without removing the part from the machine because the arbor is in the way. They work a charm yet are set up intensive, it would take me nearly one hour to set up a 1/4" square keyway in a 1" bore and roughly 5 minutes to cut it.
They are however indispensable when the keyway is longer then a simple push broach can handle and way cheaper then pull broaches and their required equipment.
As seen here, this is some sloppy work as the part is not securely clamped it can be seen moving around.
The feed mechanism is also decidedly old school, ratchet and pawl on the handwheel, some may find this "charming" I merely find it annoying and unpredictable.
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In my shop, I had a Mitts & Merrill keyseater, the next to the smallest model which can cut up to a 1-1/4" keyseat 12" through the bore; not a bit like the Morrison, a single tooth cutter is pulled through a slot in the post that the work is mounted on and there is a wedge behind the cutter that both relieves the cut on the up stroke and feeds the cutter out at each subsequent cut; one cranks the feed out until a small chip is removed at each side of the cutter, then a scale is set to zero with an indicating arrow, then a hard stop is set and the ratchet pick set at whatever feed is appropriate and start and run until finished depth is reached. Nowadays, I have broaches for ordinary work and a 6" Pratt & Whitney vertical shaper (slotter) and a slotting attachment for my B&S mill AND, I can still go back to my old shop and use the Mitts & Merrill if need be.
Since the cutter rides in a slot in the post of the keyseater, there can be no deflection of the bar as with the Morrison and chatter is unknown and the part being keyseated is always centered on its bore and not by its OD.
Since the cutter rides in a slot in the post of the keyseater, there can be no deflection of the bar as with the Morrison and chatter is unknown and the part being keyseated is always centered on its bore and not by its OD.
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Sounds like a better way to me, I hate that Morrison a good deal.
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I think the only good point of the Morrison is that it uses tool bits for cutters, much cheaper than the M&M, but I was able to find a lot of cutters cheaply at a used machine tool dealer that I knew well, and I had bought the machine from him, knowing that as tooling came along I'd be first in line for it. Another thing I did not mention is that the way parts are located by their bores, the ends of the part do not have to be even faced off. The biggest models that they made could cut, I think, 4" wide keyseats 4 ft. through. The shop that I apprenticed had one that could cut 2" wide X 24" through