Mill accessories

[Kevin Powers]

Alright, I got the mill in the shop about a week after this post originated. Took me till now to sell enough knives to buy belts, take care of some household business, and then have some left over for mill tools. I also picked up a (free) lathe during that stretch, but lathe tools are even further down the list than mill tools.

Here's what I ordered today from Shars:

6 Piece Precision R8 Collet Set $27.81

Edge/Center Finder Set $19.95

5/32x1/2 HSS Corner-Rounding End Mill $8.50 - I ordered this one specifically for finishing the edge of a hardened plunge finishing platen.

3 Piece Fly Cutter Set $14.95

3/16" M2 Square Tool Bit (3) $4.80 - for the fly cutter

Magnetic Base W/ 1" Dial Indicator $20.01

Well on my way... $115 later. Still lack parallels, v blocks, 123 blocks, and a clamp set, at least.

If your'e as hard on tooling as I am, you will need to find cheap endmills in all shapes and sizes. I have had good luck buying "variety" packs on ebay in the past. You can find the tooling that plastics shops use, it wears out for their use, but is still good to go on the stuff I do. Check your local scrap guys that deal in carbide. Some will sell you carbide tooling for pennies on the dollar compared to new carbide mills.

 

[Fitzhugh]

this probably goes goes without saying, but a good, basic understanding of feeds and speeds calculations helped this beginner a lot. It wasn't emphasized well in the intro to the mill I was given. Probably helps explain why the shop sets of end mills are so trashed and about a quarter have aluminum welded (for lack of the right term) to the flutes.
Pm me if you'd like me to send a link to the books and videos I gathered. Nothing you can't find online but could save you some time.