Has anyone had luck using endmills for metal machining?
I can buy these very cheaply through work and was curious if anyone else has tried them on a CNC router?
Thanks
Evan
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Has anyone had luck using endmills for metal machining?
I can buy these very cheaply through work and was curious if anyone else has tried them on a CNC router?
Thanks
Evan
The geometry for cutting wood or plastics is different than for metals, but they will cut. I have used some I got from someone who had quite a few, and they do work. Most metal cutting bits have 4 or more flutes, because of the higher rpms of spindles and routers you will find you need to have very high feed rates to achieve a decent chip load. What kind of machine do you have?
There are lots of inexpensive, but good quality American made bits available from eBay seller Drillman1. ebay.com/str/carbideplus (No association except as a customer). I have quite a few from him that cost between $3 - $10.
Thanks for the tip Richard, I have him Bookmarked.
Those are really good prices. Thanks
I have a probotix meteor. I have fusion 360 but downloaded the trial version of vcarve and I think that's the way I'm going to go since I have the 4th axis for it as well
They make 2 flute end mills for aluminum. They take larger cuts and it takes longer to expel the scrap if that makes sense.
For endmills, geometry, material, coatings, &c. are important --- there's an entire industry dedicated to them.
If you can find a local shop which is friendly it's well worth dropping in to visit --- was gifted a bunch of very informative catalogs when I did so at a dealer I found using Harvey Tools "Find a Distributor" link. They also let me drop off an order and check and pick it up later that week when their orders come in.
On the gripping hand, hobby CNC machines aren't rigid enough to fully take advantage of endmill geometry, so there's a lot more leeway than there is in industry, and it's usually workable to use a slightly different endmill, say one suited for aluminum on plastic.
I'll second drillman1 --- I've bought from him a number of times and received excellent quality Kyocera endmills, which have worked well in aluminum and brass on my Shapeokos and Nomad.
Always been a fan of Pournelle’s Moties....Quote:
Originally Posted by William Adams