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Cutting 5'' hole with Val-Cut trepanner

Ray Behner

Diamond
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Location
Brunswick Oh USA
Video-Cutting 5'' hole with Val-Cut trepanner

Had a pile of 3/8 plates that needed a 5'' hole. Thought I'd show you the last .100" of the cut with a Val-Cut. It bird nests pretty good, but doesn't interfere with the cut. This is about 180 rpm. Takes about 2½ / 3 minutes per piece.

Val-Cut trepanning 5'' hole - YouTube
 
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Fun video, thanks! I thought all of the Val-Cut tools were HSS? At 235 fpm a HSS tool isn't going to last very long so you must have a carbide tool in there. When I use mine I bump the feed once in a while so I don't get a wad of chips scrubbing the work - plus it's easier to clean the tool for the next cut.
 
Fun video, thanks! I thought all of the Val-Cut tools were HSS? At 235 fpm a HSS tool isn't going to last very long so you must have a carbide tool in there. When I use mine I bump the feed once in a while so I don't get a wad of chips scrubbing the work - plus it's easier to clean the tool for the next cut.

Yup, I generally clear the chips more often, but for the sake of a short download, I didn't. That is a HSS cutter. It was used quite a bit before these cuts and there were 6 of them. Still cuts like it should.
 
I bought one years ago and have always been pleasantly surprised at how well it works. Even with the extra extension bar all the way out, it just waltzes thru plate with a chatterless, comforting hiss.
 
Doug,
I bought it new from Penn Tool maybe 10 years ago.

Daryl,
You're right. I've got the 8" bar with the cutter clamp. Cuts some big holes! Also have the one for the lathe. I'ts just as good.
 
Thanks Ray, I just bought one from them this morning after watching the video. Great to know I found a good place. Regards, Doug
 
Val cut is an othewise un-remarkable high rake tool that the folks at SPI had on the market for what seems like 30 years. And yes they do work really well.

Grab a chunk of M2.... emulate the angles........ load it up in your boring bar, fly cutter etc of choice and "go to town". The old SPI catalogs as I recall showed the cutter in enough detail that one could likely duplicate from the photo's.

Something like 7 degrees clearance........ 15 degrees of back rake and the cutter presented at a slight angle such that if there is any spring in the system the cutter backs out of the cut rather than digs in.

Similar concept to the old goose-neck tools for planers...... for those of us who remember planers. And like those old planer tools the magic was in that they don't dig in and chatter..... just before they break.

Cyclotronguy
 
Side-issue anomaly, Ray, but..

...'bout an hour or so ago, a search on 'Val-Cut trepanner' brought up but four hits - some kind of record for sparse returns.

Bill

There used to be a game to try to get google to return a single hit, called a "googleplex." Googleplexes used to be occasional, but now I think google knows so much about practically everything, they may be next to extinct. I wonder if anyone has done the math to find out the frequency of googolplexes, two-hitters, three-hitters, etc.?
 
That's somewhere around 200 fpm, pretty high cutting rate for HSS! Not surprised to see a bunch of smoke.

I usually use a circle cutting attachment on my plasma cutter and then just bore it with carbide if I need a clean hole.

metalmagpie
 








 
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