WHAT FLY CUTTER TOOL??

[riversidedan]

I understand FC are meant for surfacing but how much of a cut they take??

 

[Earl]

The answer to that question is that it is up to you and your machine. Fly cutting is an interrupted cut. The deeper you cut, the harder the cutter hits. At some point the banging of the cutter against the part exceeds the holding power of whatever is holding your part. Things come loose, surface finish looks like a cobblestone road and the cutter chips, bends or breaks. Remember that a fly cutter is a single point face mill - not intended to be fast, just intended to cut things flat at a very low cost. I have seen a Suburban tool fly cutter (about $750) take almost a quarter inch cut off of a steel plate. That was in a CNC machine with a 7.5 HP spindle. Full flood coolant. Way above my pay grade but it was cool.

 

[MrWhoopee]

I understand FC are meant for surfacing but how much of a cut they take??

I find .020-.030 is max DOC with a flycutter. It can get pretty brutal even at .030.
If I need to move material, I use this.


I got tired of fooling with brazed carbide and equipped my FCs with inserted tools. I'm getting some beautiful finishes.

 

[riversidedan]

been experimenting with that brazed stuff on a FC and got a decent smooth finish on some 6061 but do have some inserts laying around, will check that out....also experimenting with a 50mm shell mill on some 12L14/1018 which looks acceptable....lots to learn!!

what kind of inserts you have in the shell mill and what are you cutting with them???

 

[erikmannie]

I had to do a lot of searching for a non-Chinese, indexable fly cutter. This is what I ended up getting:

https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/94418555

I chose TPG 321 inserts.

 

[Parlo]

been experimenting with that brazed stuff on a FC and got a decent smooth finish on some 6061 but do have some inserts laying around, will check that out....also experimenting with a 50mm shell mill on some 12L14/1018 which looks acceptable....lots to learn!!

what kind of inserts you have in the shell mill and what are you cutting with them???

For a fantastic finish on Aluminium, Brass & Acetal I use a button insert face mill with ground high shear inserts. Very low power required & super smooth cutting. I used them for tandem milling where one piece was cut with the outside of the insert & the adjacent piece cut with the inside of the insert. This method has no backcutting marks and produced a sub micron finish on Brass.
Demo - here. -

 

[erikmannie]

For a quality indexable facing mill, look at TMX.

https://www.toolmex.com/customer/docs/Tooling/2015_TMXCTCatalogIndexableRound_LoRes.pdf

Something like this:

2.00

www.suncoasttools.com

 

[erikmannie]

Speaking of fly cutters, can I assume the this TPG 321 insert is installed correctly? Is this an example of a positive rake?

 

[IamNotImportant]

I had to do a lot of searching for a non-Chinese, indexable fly cutter. This is what I ended up getting:

https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/94418555

I chose TPG 321 inserts.

has anyone mentioned this one?

TTS™ SuperFly Cutter Kit

The TTS™ SuperFly Cutter includes: fly cutter body, tool bar, two general purpose carbide inserts, two polished carbide inserts for aluminum machining, insert Screw, wrench and anti-seize.

tormach.com

 

[MrWhoopee]

what kind of inserts you have in the shell mill and what are you cutting with them???

I bought these at the same time as I ordered the cutter head off Aliexpress. I'm quite sure they are neither genuine Lamina nor Swiss made, but they work well. The picture above was taken after milling a bunch of P20 that I am certain approached Rc 40 if not over. Much harder than 4140QT.


Here it is taking .060 DOC on that P20.