Todays Project - What did you do today?

[PixMan]

Just an hour or so to kill in the shop, so I modified 4 indexable insert cutters for a friend. The two on the right are 1" diameter cut width Walter F2330 high feed mills that come with a 3/4" shank. These are the coolest tools for a CNC machine because they take a maximum 0.039" (1mm) depth per pass but do it at feed rates of .024" to 0.047" (0.6 to 1.2mm) feed per tooth at the high speeds carbide can do. They're really nice too for helical milling a hole, anything from 1.4 to 2.0 inch, no pilot hole required. Since milling with these send upwards of 80% of the force straight back on the spindle bearings rather than side loading, turning the shanks to 5/8" from 3/4" is no issue.

The other two are 1" Walter F4038 long-edge helical shoulder mills. You can see from the one that's untouched that they are 1" Weldon shank and 1" cut diameter. I had told this friend that turning down the shank to 5/8" on a cutter that's 100% side loading is a bad idea. He said that he's only using them for 0.010" to 0.020" radial engagement on soft steel and would assume all responsibility. OK...it's his money, his choice. All these are being used in ER20 collets on rotary tool blocks of a live tool lathe. They don't have a lot of torque anyhow so the spindle would bog down before anything bad happened.



They all came out perfect, for change. ;)

The best part for me was that because my son had "borrowed" my shop vac over to his woodworking shop (my shop is at his home, not mine), he was charged with doing the clean-up. :)

P.S. - the finish on them is superb, just looks bad being smeared with LPS rust preventative goop.