Wavy Cut End Mill Useage / Tips?

CNCME? · Oct 16, 2009

Hi all,

I just bought a shelf full of miscellaneous tooling from a friend, in the trove came some (1/2 dozen or so) wavy toothed design end mills.

One that is representative of the group is marked Americut W-110938 2" DIA D89 HS USA. 2" Diameter and HS I understand. Made in USA seems simple enough. I'm wondering what the intended machining material and envelope of these were? Feed, speed, depth of cut, suggestions would be a real help. I'm guessing Aluminum was the intended material? 8 flutes, flutes about 2" in length, razor sharp, Weldon flat on the shank, looks like an 1-1/4 diameter shank, not center cutting. On the shank is Weldon K4564 8 E88 HSCO USA.

I would be using this in an older Haas VF3.

I've tried searching the archives here, and on the general WWW, but no luck.

Thanks for any help / info., or just general tips on their use, if anyone has some experience with these.

Dave K · Oct 16, 2009

I think I know what type of mill cutter you're talking about. We used to call them "crest cut" end mills. I worked at a place that used them all the time. Aluminum, and steel, but to be honest, I never liked them. I'm not positive what their intended use was, but I'm guessing it was supposed to be kinda in between a hog mill and a finishing mill. The wavy flutes probably broke up harmonics a little bit so you could hog more material with out fear of chatter, yet it left a decent enough finish that you wouldn't have to go over the surface with a finishing endmill.

But with todays endmills, those seem kinda obsolete, unless there's another purpose I don't know about. Variable flute endmills can run hundreds of circles around those things, rough like crazy, and still leave a good finish.

They're not exactly useless though, you might as well use them, at least until they're used up.

mrainey · Oct 17, 2009

you could hog more material with out fear of chatter, yet it left a decent enough finish that you wouldn't have to go over the surface with a finishing endmill.

That was it, exactly.

5 axis Fidia guy · Oct 17, 2009

Actually Fraisa still makes a carbide version of that, they claim it works best in Titanium, they call thier series the "spline cut".

CNCME? · Oct 17, 2009

Thanks for the info.

Thanks much for the info.

Just as a starting point / rough estimate,

I've got some 6061 that I need to sidemill, what would be reasonable feed, speed, DOC?

Older Haas VF3, Hangsterfers' S500 flood coolant, short-ish gage length holder.

jackal · Oct 17, 2009

I have a few of those and always wondered the recommended application.

Thanks guys,

JAckal :cheers:

Rstewart · Oct 19, 2009

The one's like that i've seen are being advertised for cutting Ti. Eight flutes seem like an Aweful lot for aluminum unless ur just strictly profile finishing. Stick with three flutes or less for Aluminum.

Limy Sami · Oct 19, 2009

CNCME? said:
Thanks much for the info.

Just as a starting point / rough estimate,

I've got some 6061 that I need to sidemill, what would be reasonable feed, speed, DOC?

Older Haas VF3, Hangsterfers' S500 flood coolant, short-ish gage length holder.

As a HSS kind of guy

I'd suggest 300 ' / min to start with though you can wind her up to about 600' / min.

.002 - .005 / tooth feed though that will depend on flute capacity.

DOC ;- As there are so many variables - whatever you can get away with

............ might need a little juggling to find a sweet spot.

IMO the more coolant the better, shooting it in the right place is just as important.

TimBillotti · Jul 10, 2012

CNCME? said:
Hi all,

I just bought a shelf full of miscellaneous tooling from a friend, in the trove came some (1/2 dozen or so) wavy toothed design end mills.

One that is representative of the group is marked Americut W-110938 2" DIA D89 HS USA. 2" Diameter and HS I understand. Made in USA seems simple enough. I'm wondering what the intended machining material and envelope of these were? Feed, speed, depth of cut, suggestions would be a real help. I'm guessing Aluminum was the intended material? 8 flutes, flutes about 2" in length, razor sharp, Weldon flat on the shank, looks like an 1-1/4 diameter shank, not center cutting. On the shank is Weldon K4564 8 E88 HSCO USA.

I would be using this in an older Haas VF3.

I've tried searching the archives here, and on the general WWW, but no luck.

Thanks for any help / info., or just general tips on their use, if anyone has some experience with these.

This should help. It has speeds and feeds for the whole product line based on the material being cut. It is in PDF form and on page 46. The Endmill you are talking about sounds like it is from their Crest -Kut Line.

http://www.weldontool.com/catalogs/weldon/Aerospace.pdf

Limy Sami · Jul 10, 2012

Rstewart said:
The one's like that i've seen are being advertised for cutting Ti. Eight flutes seem like an Aweful lot for aluminum unless ur just strictly profile finishing. Stick with three flutes or less for Aluminum.

That 8 flute cutter is 2" dia! 3 *flutes on 8" HSS would from a metal removal POV inefficient.

2'' dai = 6.284'' circ / 8(teeth) = 0.7855'' spacing which is quite a large gullet.

I go with the ''semi finishing'' angle, IMO the waves help break up the chips, and they work great on nylon and polyprop

Sweetspot finding is often needed.

A 2"dia cutter working hard even in Alu will need more rigidty than my first be imagined

Parkerbender · Jul 10, 2012

We use 4 flutes in aluminum roughing almost exclusively, all you have to do is keep the chips away, put your air behind your coolant hoses with a one way valve, and you can run 1/2" 4 flutes 1xD slotting, no worries! On that cutter, I'd probably start 175-225 SFM, and .0015-.002 Ipt, depending on your DOC's If you were profiling on the outside around a part, i bet you could haul some mail if you can keep the chips away. Worst problem then will be that being's HSS, it will wear out just when you fall in love with it ;-)

-Parker

Dirtywiskers · Jul 10, 2012

Am thinking i seen that flute cut in a MSC catalog for cutting stainless not sure

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Wavy Cut End Mill Useage / Tips?

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