Which End Mill to Cut High Speed Steel?

etter results cutting threads in soft material. It went really well, and I would like to modify more dies for different sizes, but my 3/8" Drill Monst er carbide ballnose endmill barely made it through one die. I would like to get more than one part per cutter, so I am hoping the collective wisdom of the group can steer me to a specific manufacturer of end mills good at cut ting HSS. Any recommendations? And thanks for reading.

What do you say we get back to the question?

Best bet is to use a mounted point grinding tool instead.

Nope, I sure don't. Whenever I've worked with the owner of Swift Carb I have always found him to be very helpful and a straight shooter. He doesn't pulls pussy shit like bad mouthing me on Practically Worthless Machinist behind my back where I can't comment like you or Alphonso do. If you can't get along with the owner of Swift Carb, I can't help you.

===

Swift tool is a dysfunctional pseudo-family-owned / hodge podge collection of business entities whose family members rarely can even get along with one another without the help of an attorney.

It is a chickenshit thing to do and many people do it. If I remember wrong so be it. Like I said I'm not going to waste my time and go look.

===

Jon I think you are mistaken.

A search for "banquer" turns up 122 posts, and a search for charlie gary turns up 113.

A search for charlie gary banquer comes up with nothing, as does a search for charlie gary jon.

--

The only ones I've ever seen wouldn't last. Can you recommend one that can take that kind of abuse?

Later,

Charlie

No particular brand, but process is pretty important, you need a relatively high speed spindle such as a die grinder...mount beside the quill of a bridgeport or similar so that you can continually stroke it up and down while slowly feeding sideways with some sort of postioning table...best is if you can always leave about 25% of the tool in contact with the work on both ends of stroke.

Wheel hardness is also a factor, you don't want it to glaze and burn but you also don't want it to be so soft that it turns to dust.

At one point in time I tested some ceramic endmills that would probably work well for you but can't remember what the brand name was.....rigidity was a major factor, I was using a 40 taper bridgeport seriesII special which was kind of sketchy if memory serves me.

Another possibility would be to anneal the dies and then re-harden or manufacture from scratch--in the annealed condition M2 hss literally cuts like butter.

Rigidity is my big hurdle. I have a knee mill with R8 spindle. I'm currently using a rotary table to hold the die, so positioning like you talk about would be easy. I'll look into making an adapter to hold a die grinder. Thanks for the tips.

currently using a rotary table to hold the die, so positioning like you talk about would be easy. I'll look into making an adapter to hold a die grinder. Thanks for the tips.

Charlie, If your milling I'd run it dry and at fast RPM. My experience is you want to "anneal" the hardened steel.

My 2 cents.

Best, Steve

sage

essage

currently using a rotary table to hold the die, so positioning like you ta lk about would be easy. I'll look into making an adapter to hold a die gri nder. Thanks for the tips.

Hi Steve, That seems to be how it worked out. The lowest power feed setting of .00

15" per rev was a little too aggressive, so I fed it by hand at about 1/4 t hat rate. The machine isn't rigid, so I can't push too hard without gettin g flex and chipping the cutter. It ran great through the first three cuts, but by the end of cut number six the edges were showing the wear and there was enough heat generated to discolor the bottom two teeth of that segment .

Later,

Charlie