need advice re carbide insert tooling

Got a call today from JTS saying they didn't ship my Dorian 60 degree carbide insert dovetail cutter because their website had the old price. The new price is around $80 higher. I told them thank you for informing me of this a week after I placed my order and I cancelled the order.

I dug around for other places to order it from and found it at KBC tools for $208 and the non-coated inserts are about $10 each, coated $13 each. The tool needs 3. Not sure what radius is best 1/64 or 1/32, or if I should go coated or uncoated?

I am going to be machining 4140 steel on a very rigid cnc bedmill. This is mostly a "for fun" project so I can take as long as I want. Is there a cheaper solution than spending ~$250 for this tool and 3 inserts? The right size import HSS dovetail cutter from Enco is $60, but I am not sure if it would even last through this one piece of 4140.

I have been researching carbide inserts for the past few hours...lot of confusing information and numbering out there. How hard would it be to make a three insert shell mill dovetail cutter if I could find some suitable ebay inserts? It sounds like a fun sub-project, but I don't really know where to begin or what insert style to design around. Any websites with info?

Thanks,

Rick

Reply to
rick
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No problem machining it with HSS. In fact for this situation I would vastly prefer HSS to carbide. The key is to run at the right speed. Personally in this situation I would take about half the calculated speed for that size cutter. It would make the cutter last longer especially the sharp points which dovetail cutters have.

Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

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Reply to
Wayne Cook

An hss cutter should work fine for one off in annealed 4140--take several passes then a light finish pass.

Ive made literally hundreds of aloris type toolholders here out of that material using a single cutter.

Reply to
PrecisionMachinisT

Ditto what Wayse and SVL said.

Be sure and use lots of coolant. And conventional mill. not climb mill. The tips can't take much. The problem with these cutters is burning breaking right at the tip.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

Thanks guys. I will try the somewhat cheap HSS dovetail mill then.

Reply to
rick

I ordered a small dovetail cutter from an Enco monthly sales catalog a couple of years ago. It was a Japanese made cutter, HSS and performed fine with the CRS 1018 that I was using it on. I notice that Grizzly sells the same sized cutters as Enco for somewhat less than the regular Enco catalog price. I would think they are probably Chinese made, but they might be worth a try for being 1/3 less in price.

Reply to
Phil Teague

I apologize if someone has already mentioned this. You might find this URL of interest:

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Reply to
keith bowers

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