I need to flycut an ali casting. being as i haven't had a mill long and had very limited tooling i did the deed last time with a 1/2" hss tool in the side of a boring head - the only bit of tooling apart from a morse adapter that I owned at the time.
I have to face an ~ 19" wide x 14" long face, and need to remove about
20 - 50 thou, I have altered the pattern so it should be about 20 thou now? I was able to face it with the boring head, which was effectivly a 5" flycutter, after fooling with the head and getting it lined up. By the time i was taking the last cut the tool had abraded and I was forced to hone the tool and take another superlight cut to get it flat.
I have altered the pattern, it now has raised areas where the gasket face is, so there is very little metal to remove, but it is now interupted cutting all/most of the time.
I have bought an insert type 70 mm tool, I might have to take more cuts but it should be ok. or, I have made a 40 int arbour, it's not finished, at the moment it's just a 3"D chunk of en24 that has a 40 int taper on one end. I can't decide whether to put one - or maybe a few- insert on it or to bolt a 5 " drop to it and mount a chunk of hss on that..
-- richard