Best milling insert

The discussion that Harold and Jon had in the recent thread on HSS vs. Carbide has prompted me to ask, "What is the best performing milling insert to use on smaller milling machines?"

My vote has been for the Sandvik R390 insert family. As I have milling insert cutters from 1/2" to 3", and a ton of inserts in grades for AL and steel, I'm unlikely to change. I've found my old beat up Bridgeport 1J can't handle them. But, they work wonders on my Excello. Its a taper 40 knee mill machine with a 2J style milling head.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend
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Well, there may be a problem with the Bridgeport's bearings or something like that. If you already have the inserts, then it doesn't matter, but I look at the cost of the inserts, especially proprietary inserts, with caution. The arbors, shell mills, etc. are a one-time cost, but some of these fancy, twisted inserts are $11 a piece, and you may only get two edges from each insert. If you have an indexable mill that takes a standard insert, like a triangular or square one, then you may be able to grab a box of commodity inserts for around $1 each, on eBay or a tool distributor's sale flyer. I just got 50 triangular coated inserts for my turning holder set for about $1.25 each. I have enough inserts for my insert mill for a while, but when I get low, I'll have to see what I can turn up. Chewing up $11 inserts everytime I goof or run it hard would give me indigestion.

I get the flyers from Sandvik and others, and they have glowing testimonials for some of their exotic tooling. Some of that stuff apparently saves big shops enourmous amopunts of time in really severe milling and turning jobs that I'm not likely to encounter. But, the fancy arbors, etc. run to several hundred $ each, WAY out of my price range.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

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By shopping Ebay, and one really unbelievable sale to my son's company, I haven't had to pay the crazy retail list price. AL inserts run about $4 and steel $6 on Ebay. And you get what you pay for, I can't stand TPG anymore. Its like going back to HSS after getting used to carbide.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message news:LaRNe.9666$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...

agree completely

xman

Reply to
xmradio

"Karl Townsend" wrote in news:zNFNe.7790$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net:

Iscar. I've used their insert mills on live tool lathe attachments and in R8 spindles on knee mills. Here is a link to an R8 shank. I've only used the straight shank ones though. I've spun down 1" shank mills to 1/2" and

5/8" to fit in the lathe milling attachment.

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Just remember to take sane DOC's. It's better to run high RPM, high feed, lighter DOC.

Reply to
D Murphy

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I took a moment and looked at these inserts. They look almost exactly like the Sandvik R390. I'm sure they're just enough different so they won't fit in the other company's toolholder.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

"Karl Townsend" wrote in news:fh_Ne.8622$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net:

And I'm wondering why we've never tried the Sandvik. We get great support from them and Kennametal. Iscar on the other hand...

Reply to
D Murphy

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