Who is the Fat Elf With the Tools?
June 6th, 2009St. Nick Arrives Early
Yesterday I celebrated Christmas in June. The tooling for my mill arrived. I spend some time fondling and pawing it. Now I can’t wait for the mill itself. Should be here in maybe ten days.
Here’s what I got.
1. Clamping set. They practically give these away. Comes with a nice bin sort of a thing you can hang on the wall or the side of your mill.
2. Set of 8 cutters. Four are 2-flute, and four are 4-flute. I wanted carbide, but people told me I was nuts, so I got cobalt.
3. Set of 5 fly cutters, with HSS blanks I can turn into cutting tools. I know you’re supposed to make your own fly cutters, but here’s a funny thing I’ve learned: it takes tools to make tools. Some things, you can bang out with a cordless drill and a butter knife. Others require you to be fairly well tooled up. You need a mill and God knows what else to make fly cutters.
4. R8 collets.
5. Wiggler set.
6. Edge-finder.
7. Indicol holder.
8. Parallels.
9. 1-2-3 blocks.
10. Woodruff key cutter.
11. Acid brushes.
12. Corner-rounding cutter.
That’s the bulk of it. I forgot to get a square and V-blocks. If you have suggestions, let fly. Enco has so many squares, I have no idea which is best for the money. I figured I’d get a pair of import V-blocks without clamps. They’re not too pricey. For squares, the 4-piece Brown and Sharpe set has been suggested to me.
I have a Jacobs Super Chuck I bought off Ebay. I was going to get a new one, but everyone says the quality is not as good, so I went used. It has a humongous taper in it, from a Moore jig borer. Looks like I’m going to have to get wedges to knock it out. I tried using a punch.
The vise arrives next week. I hope it lives up to what people say about it. It didn’t save me much money over a Kurt, but it’s bigger and a little tougher, so I thought it was a good choice.
I think the best thing I bought was the cheap shop apron. I am really tired of ruining my nice $4.95 shirts.
June 6th, 2009 at 1:55 PM
Just like dodging welding spatter between your toes, get rid of the flip flops and sandals also. Now that it’s not a million degrees in the garage/shop, do like I did and grab some cheap overalls from WallMart and look like a Kentucky Hillbilly while brandishing evil looking tools.
It’s also good attire to scare away the Jehovah’s Witness and Mormon missionaries when they come knocking at your door.
June 6th, 2009 at 3:56 PM
I use V-blocks every now and then, often with the clamp. You should get the set with clamp(s), as you’re not actually required to use the clamp(s).
Besides the B&S 4-piece set, I use a small machinist’s square quite a bit, one of several in my toolbox. One is about 3″ X 4″, the other is much smaller. Not being at home, I can’t measure them right now, sorry.
About those mills: if they’re the cheap Chinese jobs, you better order replacements now. Although they’re almost usable, they’re not really sharpened correctly, or at least MY set wasn’t. I use almost nothing but carbide, mostly 4-flute single-end mills. Mostly, they’ll last at least a year, often-times much longer.
June 6th, 2009 at 4:04 PM
Great. I was going to get carbide, but the guys on the Chaski forum told me to go with HSS.
June 6th, 2009 at 5:58 PM
look into some precision levels,level your table both directions, then check your vise etc. that way you cuts stay parallel and you can check it easily. if you need to cut an angle, angled parallels make life easy too..I have found its easier to tilt the part I am making rather than tilting the mill head, then having to re-sweep it in.
June 6th, 2009 at 6:13 PM
The guys on the Chaski forum are probably correct, I just mentioned what *I* do. It works for me, so what can I say? Get ’em when Enco has ’em on sale.
June 6th, 2009 at 9:54 PM
HSS is more forgiving of learning curves (i.e. too fast a feed or plunge rate, work-piece vibration and clamping, and so on). Carbide tends to be brittle and I’ve broken a few (especially on the CNC).
.
You may have to replace a worn HSS end mill (especially the smaller ones) after a while, but I’d wager that you’d break a few carbide mills in same time period, so it’s a false economy that carbide wears longer (at least while your learning). I’ve also broken HSS end mills while coming up the learning curve, so it also helps that they tend to be cheaper than their Carbide and TiN coated cousins.
.
Of course, I work mostly aluminum, so your mileage may vary…
June 7th, 2009 at 7:04 AM
US-made carbide is not all that expensive on Ebay. About twelve bucks per cutter, in a set. Twice the price of Chinese cobalt.
June 7th, 2009 at 8:26 AM
If you were to find a way to using your new tools and handiman prowess to helping the widows (et al) at church you could be reclassified from “fat elf” to “stout saint” and store yourself some nice treasure in heaven from just doing some of the same sort of puttering around you’d be doing anyway.
June 7th, 2009 at 8:39 AM
I’ve been buying my End Mills for work and they won’t reimburse me if it’s from Ebay…so I tend to use McMaster.
.
At the prices you mention, why not have a set of all three? HSS, Carbide and Cobalt? Just expect to have to replace a few broken carbides in the learning process…heck, I’m still breaking them on occassion (CNC Gerber compilation algorithms do not always use common sense intelligence when computing toolpaths, so occassionally stupid stuff happens)…
June 8th, 2009 at 10:00 AM
I’ve not heard this rule that you are supposed to make your own fly cutters before hence I bough mine ready made. I’d have thought you could made one with just a lathe, a drill press and some taps.
It does sound like you’ve gone a bit ott on the kit though, I’d have thought you could start off with a lot less but the apron was definately a good buy.
Did you also get some cutting fluid? I either use a little oil can or a brush to apply the cutting fluid dependant on how big/hot the particular job is. Some soft brushes to clean down the machine are a good idea.
You’ll get lots of opinions if you start asking about cutting fluid….
June 8th, 2009 at 10:33 AM
“I’ve not heard this rule that you are supposed to make your own fly cutters before”
.
I’m pretty sure it’s in the federal statutes somewhere.
.
I may have more stuff than I need; I am doing my best to get and apply the advice of people who know more than I do.
.
I did get cutting fluid. Ridgid pipe-threading oil, to be precise. Oddly, it is not the fluid I intend to use for threading. For that, I have Moly-Dee.
.
I will never understand machining.