Mill Tooling

Sean Yaw

Sean Yaw

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Joined
Feb 26, 2019
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417
Fresh off my first 2x72 purchase, it looks like I will be getting a mill soon. I was wondering what sort of end mills are recommended for relieving slipjoint liners, cutting lockback latches, and making custom fixtures? 2/4 flutes? Carbide for all materials (steel, aluminum, brass, copper)? What about face mills for getting handles to final thickness? Are they are other mill tooling I should think about early on? Thank you.
 
Onlinecarbide has some excellent carbide end mills. Ironically there website is terrible but if you call they will make anything you want. I don’t believe you can get a better deal on carbide. For a face mill I would recommend something from Shars for a good starting point.

Typical rule of thumb is 2 flute for non ferrous metals and 4 flute for anything steel.

You’ll need a good edge finder and a nice vise as well.
 
Hubert S. said:
I would recommend a dial test indicator to align the vise and tram the head. Maybe a rotary table for relieving liners.

What type of mill are you looking at?
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Probably one of the Precision Matthews bench top models. I found a great youtube series tonight by Blondihacks on milling. It demonstrated tramming while getting everything set up.
 
Sean Yaw said:
Probably one of the Precision Matthews bench top models. I found a great youtube series tonight by Blondihacks on milling. It demonstrated tramming while getting everything set up.
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I have a PM-30MV and I am really happy with it. I bought the stand with it, but would not do so again. I just got it off of that a couple of weeks ago and onto a stand made from 2" tubing to get it to a more comfortable working height and get more storage underneath. Of course, the mill had to be trammed after moving, which is a bit of a pain. I would highly recommend a DRO, I could not machine anything without one. I also have the powerfeed for the x-axis. It gets used a lot, but I could probably get by without it.

You probably need a vise, a set of parallels, an R8 drill chuck, R8 collets or an R8 collet holder for ER collets, a set of toe clamps/T-nuts, a decent oil can and way oil. Like Contender said, you will need an edge finder.

Maybe get a flycutter (nail nicks?) and a slitting saw arbor.

I use mostly carbide end mills and have an indexable face mill that leaves a really nice finish on aluminum with a little bit of WD40 and a shallow finish pass at high RPM. I have not tried it on handle materials other than wood, for which I would not recommend it.
 
I use 1/2" 4 flute uncoated carbide endmills with a .020 corner radius for doing my reliefs. It provides enough clearance for almost every tang and kick I've worked with so far. Beyond that, there is an absolute s#!t ton to consider here. Luckily for me 90% of it came with my mill when I bought it. That said you know you can always hit me up on IG. We can do a video call and I'll give you the rundown on my set-up. Otherwise this post will turn into a book. Lol.
 
Signalprick said:
I use 1/2" 4 flute uncoated carbide endmills with a .020 corner radius for doing my reliefs. It provides enough clearance for almost every tang and kick I've worked with so far. Beyond that, there is an absolute s#!t ton to consider here. Luckily for me 90% of it came with my mill when I bought it. That said you know you can always hit me up on IG. We can do a video call and I'll give you the rundown on my set-up. Otherwise this post will turn into a book. Lol.
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I figured as much! I didn't want to inundate you on IG, so figured I would come here first. I am sure that I will continue to bother you over there though. ;)
 
I suggest starting out buy Cobalt end mills save a little money cuz it doesn't take much to ruin an expensive Carbide end mill. Once you get the hang of it and know what you will use the most then step up to carbide end mills.
 
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