Hi all,
I am trying to cut a 2 inch internal keyway into some CRS and am having some trouble. I have an Atlas 7" shaper and have ground a bit out of tool steel (kiln hardened after grinding). The issue is that I get deflection because of the tool being a bit over 2 inches long. What's happening is that the keyway is being cut just fine at the beginning of the hole but is deflected down to nothing by the time the cutter gets to the other side of the hole (2" further). I am using 1/2 inch tool steel and thought that it should be strong enough to not deflect. Do I need to make the cutter out of 3/4 inch steel? If so, how would one cut a keyway into a 5/8" hole (2 inches long)? Should I make my cutting tip smaller (width), right now it is .25" wide (the width of the keyway I need.
Any help would e greatly appreciated.
I had one idea, that was to anneal a file, cut it, drill holes in it, make a new clapper attachment to hold the file with screws through the holes I made in the file and file away the group....in effect, converting the shaper into an automatic file...just seems like I should not have to do that.
Thanks again
John