Using mill yet?

[plain ol Bill]

Hi Ed. I thought about you the other day while setting up a ladder billet in the mill. I took a .030 cut just to level off the surface and then made a .120 cut to clean up to good metal. I did this on both sides and had a blank left that was .115 thick. This was for an order where the customer wanted a long thin blade out of damascus. The knife wound up 8 1/2" long tip to guard, 1 1/8" wide and another 5" for the handle. Ya gotta love being able to clean up billets w/ the mill by now buddy. Talk about making guards and spacers a pleasure versus drilling and filing out too.

[Ed Caffrey]

Hi Bill!

I've been using the heck outta the new mill! Been doing a lot of face milling on Mosaic billets to square them up prior to marking for accordion folding. It took me a while to get it set up correctly, and with a little help from Steve Kelly, I finally managed to get things lined out.

I wound up buying a magnetic shield to put on the front of the machine for face milling (got tired to catching those hot metal chips in the kisser!)

After having used it for a while, I think it's a pretty good machine for the money. It's certainly not a Bridgeport as far as accuracy goes, but for what I do it's just about perfect. I set it up in the Blacksmith shop, just because it was too big to get into the finish shop. I kept my little benchtop mill in the finishing shop for guards and such, but when it comes to the heavy work...... I always go to the "Big" mill.

One thing I've found it that carbide inserts don't last very long on forge scale! I have face mills that use TPG 322, and TPG 421/22 inserts, and find I'm constantly browsing ebay for more.

Knowing what I do now, Power feed is the only way to go! I only have it on the cross axis of the machine, but boy, oh boy is it ever nice! I remember on the old benchtop mill that my shoulder would be worn out after facing off one billet, and I'd be huffing and puffing like I just ran an uphill mile. Having the up/down on the knee is a huge change too from my old mill. Just makes things much more accurate and easier.

I just got a new 2007 Grizzly catalog a couple of days ago and noticed that they really jacked up the prices on their machines for 07....so I'm really glad I took the plunge when I did.

I'm in my mad rush for Reno right now. Got 5 blades laying on the bench, 4 with guards and one without (can ya guess what I'll be doing in a little while?)

If all goes well I should have 8 knives to haul to Reno....but we'll hold that thought until their done.

Well, gotta figure out a quiz for today, and then get to the shop!

Take Care for Now!

[SamLS]

"One thing I've found it that carbide inserts don't last very long on forge scale! I have face mills that use TPG 322, and TPG 421/22 inserts, and find I'm constantly browsing ebay for more."


Are you using the indexible insert mill grizzly sends with the machine where it takes 3 inserts. You have a few things working against you the first is the scale try to get your first cut to be under the scale meaning the bar will finish clean secondly the style of mill you have induces chatter and thats typical of any mill where the quill moves which is why the cnc machines don't have a moveable quill the whole head moves. This eliminates the backlash in the drive train thus less shock on the inserts. So your feed and speed for your mill has to be set so you hear a purring sound when cutting and not a hammering sound. TPG inserts are also fragile compared to the inserts developed for facemilling but again with a bridgeport style spindle your limited and with some of the import cutterbodies the inserts are not installed or supported correctly. You may want to consider a single point fly cutter and just regrind it with a green wheel by hand.