Jeez, the finish on that surface plate! You could shave in that. I only recently found your channel, must admit to being super impressed by how you keep all your equipment.
Good score the tooling. If you wanted, you could try this. Next time you set the tips. Have the face mill mounted in your milling machine. Then set the height of the tips by touching them down onto a flat guage/plate sat on your mill table. That way you should probably be able to achieve almost 100% the same cutter projection. Your eliminating all the other previous factors, even the chance of a slight run out of the face mill mounted in your mill. Make a note which way around the face mill is mounted in the spindle. I like the z axis setting guage, first time I've seen one. That finish is supurb as is, great tool. Cheers Tony
Hi and thanks for the comment. I had thought about that as a last option, however the result of the manual adjustment worked well. I thought I might try this method on the other two face mills and see how it went. I think your idea may have produced a better result than I got.
Surface finish looks good, and the cutter sound was pretty uniform as it cut. Definitely worth persevering with the cutter to sort it out. Good post thank you 👍
Great work and very interesting. How about a tour of Your Shed and machines? You mentioned that you have had your main lathe 40 years, that looks cleaner than new!
Thanks for the comment. I'm currently filming a Maintenance Day(s) on that lathe, lots of details about this lathe and its history. It will be available in a few weeks.
Excellent sharp photography - is this with a phone to get in close and avoid interference with machine operation? The microscope mount for the Colchester is neat. Did you drill & tap the holes into the crosslide for the screws? I'm not too bothered if inserts aren't aligned near as well in a facemill as you were trying to achieve. Most inserts are made for heavier chip removal using blunt force where all tips will still be cutting irrespective of lack of precision fit. Their slightly rounded cutting edge is not best suited for continued super smooth surfaces. Grinding an old tip to get a sharp edge (as you would for a HSS lathe tool) and then fitted to your facemill, to use in fly cutter mode, works well.
Thanks for the comments. Yes, the filming was done on an iPhone. I have a GoPro as well but the it won't focus on items under 300mm away from the lens. I didn't drill the cross slide holes, they were already present. They are for a mounting block for a rear tool post. The face mill works OK and yes it is for hogging out material. I do have some fly cutters but not a really big one. I need to put that on my project list. Thanks and regards, Steve O
Jeez, the finish on that surface plate! You could shave in that.
I only recently found your channel, must admit to being super impressed by how you keep all your equipment.
Thanks for the comments. I always keep the surface plate protected when not in use.
Very meticulous, indeed a true machinists! Thanks for the video sir ! 👍🏻🍻
Thanks for the comment.
Good score the tooling. If you wanted, you could try this. Next time you set the tips. Have the face mill mounted in your milling machine. Then set the height of the tips by touching them down onto a flat guage/plate sat on your mill table. That way you should probably be able to achieve almost 100% the same cutter projection. Your eliminating all the other previous factors, even the chance of a slight run out of the face mill mounted in your mill. Make a note which way around the face mill is mounted in the spindle. I like the z axis setting guage, first time I've seen one. That finish is supurb as is, great tool. Cheers Tony
Hi and thanks for the comment. I had thought about that as a last option, however the result of the manual adjustment worked well. I thought I might try this method on the other two face mills and see how it went. I think your idea may have produced a better result than I got.
Surface finish looks good, and the cutter sound was pretty uniform as it cut. Definitely worth persevering with the cutter to sort it out. Good post thank you 👍
Thanks for the comment.
very nice job.....thank you from the USA...Paul
Glad you enjoyed it
Great work and very interesting. How about a tour of Your Shed and machines? You mentioned that you have had your main lathe 40 years, that looks cleaner than new!
Thanks for the comment. I'm currently filming a Maintenance Day(s) on that lathe, lots of details about this lathe and its history. It will be available in a few weeks.
thats a nice finish on that mild steel !
cheers ben.
Thanks, it came out better than I expected.
Gday Stevo, the cutter sounde smooth and the surface finish was spot on, certainly better then the import facemills on the market, great job, cheers
Thanks Matty, appreciated.
Excellent sharp photography - is this with a phone to get in close and avoid interference with machine operation?
The microscope mount for the Colchester is neat. Did you drill & tap the holes into the crosslide for the screws?
I'm not too bothered if inserts aren't aligned near as well in a facemill as you were trying to achieve. Most inserts are made for heavier chip removal using blunt force where all tips will still be cutting irrespective of lack of precision fit. Their slightly rounded cutting edge is not best suited for continued super smooth surfaces. Grinding an old tip to get a sharp edge (as you would for a HSS lathe tool) and then fitted to your facemill, to use in fly cutter mode, works well.
Thanks for the comments. Yes, the filming was done on an iPhone. I have a GoPro as well but the it won't focus on items under 300mm away from the lens.
I didn't drill the cross slide holes, they were already present. They are for a mounting block for a rear tool post. The face mill works OK and yes it is for hogging out material. I do have some fly cutters but not a really big one. I need to put that on my project list. Thanks and regards, Steve O
Cheers