Hello Guys
Any recommendations for a face mill for the 440?, I don’t want to spend a fortune on one tool. so if anyone has any recommendations I’d love to hear them.
I have the superfly already, but want to add a face mill to my tooling.
Martin
I use this on my 440 (primarily aluminum but have the steel inserts) with the TTS shell mill arbor:
https://tormach.com/face-mill-38mm-31280-builder.html
It stays loaded in the ATC at all times.
I’ve I think 5 Accusize face mills 2 for the Tormach and 3 for the Bridgeport all are APKT 1604….. they work fine… look them up on amazon
One decision you must make is what kind of face mill you need to use.
For facing flat surfaces, I would use a 45 degree cutter face mill.
If you need to cut square shoulders with your face mill, a 90 degree cutter would be a natural choice.
If you need to do large rough z-surfacing or you need round shoulders, a button cutter face mill would be for you.
You will have to decide between insert types. You have be very careful as the tools are not compatible with all inserts, and there are different insert styles for the same angle. Also, different manufacturers like ZCC (China) are often incompatible with styles from Sandvik or Iscar. You must choose the manufacturer-style for inserts based on the availability to you. Be very careful with this.
As far as the tools themselves, even cheap ones from Shars are very good.
FWIW, I only own one face mill, and it is a 45 degree, because I only use it for facing stock.
1 Like
Also FWIW
Totally agree on your Shars comment
But get Tegara brand… thats there in house made in Taiwan vs Shars made in PRC
what kind of rpm, feeds and speeds you running, and DOC with that tool. I have been debating getting a shell mill. I use superfly for big stuff but its a low rpm, minimal DOC for good finishes. I was hoping with a shell mill I could run faster & more DOC.
I’m probably more optimistic than conservative on some of my F&S and I am by the console ready to feed-hold or adjust.
A recent F&S I found for 6061 (soft jaws for the 4” vise) I have it running (with flood):
- 4000 RPM (high belt)
- full width cut
- 0.01 DOC
- 60 IPM
I think there is some room for improvement for both MRR and finish if I were to go back to HSMAdvisor/FSWizard and tinker some more to see if there’s a way to run it at higher RPMS since 4000 is pretty low on the power band (I think on high belt, 8000-8500 is where the 440 has the most power). I feel like it wants more RPMS (6000) or slower for those parameters and it’s not a long pass, so it may not be sustainable if you are doing larger pieces/passes. I’m also not chasing finish quality on what I’m doing or have specs for high precision, so YMMV.
How does that compare to what you are doing with the superfly?
Superfluous slow due to imbalance.ax rpm is 2500.
I run 2500, and 25ipm @ 0.003 doc for a good finish, 20ipm with coolant for a Ra of 27’ish. Ifnypubrunnon low belt can probably take a bigger doc. But on high belt I find 3 thou gives best finish. I’ve run 5 thou on high belt but I dont like.
I have a 2 flute 21mm, insert end mill and I use it to hog top hats off. I run that at 0.1 doc & 0.1 woc, at 40ish ipm. I have run it up to 0.2 doc & 0.125 doc but thats pushing it on 440. It has a nice surface finish when needed. Superfly is slow, insert is fast but not very big. So i need a proper shell mill…