Cheep Face Mills / Indexable End Mills?

Do you suppose the boss won't buy the proper tooling because he knows that you will?

If you finish a job twice as fast with the proper tooling, who gets to keep the extra money earned?

Do the best job you can with the tooling you're given. If the boss won't spring for the proper equipment, that's his problem.

BTW, I'm not a disgruntled employee, I'm a shop owner.

Oh, one more thing.... I'm sorry I don't actually know the answer to your question.

Ain't gonna happen for less that about two hundred plus, new. And make sure to check if that includes an R-8 shank.

Or follow Ebay for "face mill", like this one, which uses a very common type insert.

As the well documented flycutter coward amongst us, I'm surprise that it has not been suggested. Flycutters can be inexpensive, and would probably do a fine job. Dave makes a good point: consider making the boss pay for it. See Enco for inexpensive import flycutters and square tool bits.

BTW, don't take my word for anything re flycutters: I've never used one, though that will change next week.

Bill

To put this in perspective, the company I work for is a fairly young company and only has around 30 employees in total, with the machine shop dept. having all of 4 guys.

I suspect two things are responsible for the penny-pinching when it comes to tooling and such; the boss (plant manager) is a white collar management type of guy and while he's cool to work for, he's not a former machinist and thus kinda freaks out when he sees the prices of needed stuff;

"You mean $2.50 only buys us _one_ of these tiny little face mill inserts?"

The other thing is that the "old timer" in the machine shop brought a lot of gear with him when they formed the dept. around 10 years ago (instead of sending the work outside) and so the company didn't have to buy much of the stuff it normally would have.

There's no I in team....

I don't have a problem buying my own tooling if the price is reasonable and it's something I'll have for many years (like a face mill) and can take with me if I move on to a different employer. But I ain't buying "consumables" like inserts, end mills, drills and such.

And it's been my experience that since smaller family owned type companies have more interaction between management and the employees, they actually appreciate an employee that does a good job and this is factored in when one needs some time off or something and when it comes time to share the wealth or kick someone to the curb.

With big companies on the other hand, you're just a number and whether you do a good job or not (unless you're a total screw-up) nobody notices and even if they do notice, it won't get you anything.

Yes, but I'm still the one who has to get the job done and I'm the one who is _directly_ affected by the lack of proper tooling (or at least tooling that makes the job go smoother).

One of the other guys in the dept. has a fly cutter and I do use it occasionally but I prefer taking more material off with fewer passes.

It's a personal experiance thing, the last place I worked for had a bunch of differant size face mills so we never needed to use a fly cutter. I just don't like them.

The Penn Tool link I provided shows a 3" R8 face mill for $140 which while still too rich for my blood, isn't that expensive.

Good idea, why didn't I think of that?

You want to get in touch with your E's. Experience. Different. Not all words are spelled the way you mispronounce them.

You actually took time out of your day to reply with a spelling flame?