I love experimenting with tooling -- sometimes to a financial detriment -- and thought it would be fun to hear from others on their favorite tools.
A particular tool might be one of your favorites because you get great finishes or great MRR, or maybe it lasts longer than everything else, or maybe it's useful in a bunch of materials, or maybe it solves a particular challenge. Whatever it is, I'd love to hear about it.
Bonus points for links, part numbers, machine(s) you use it in, application data, etc. I don't know who's giving out these bonus points, but trust me that you'll get them.
I'll start with a few of my favorites.
Right now I'm using all of these in a Brother Speedio S1000X1 with a 16k Big+ spindle.
Helical 48115 - 1/4" 3 flute for aluminum/non-ferrous. Uncoated carbide. 40deg variable pitch. Everyone needs a nice, generic 1/4" end mill and this one is it for me. It's an absolute workhorse and is good at basically everything... roughing, finishing, slotting, even plunging on occasion. Gives good floor finishes and decent wall finishes, more than good enough for non-critical surfaces. I haven't found another 1/4" that is as generically good in aluminum. If you're mostly milling something like 6061, skip the ZrN coating and just get uncoated. Gives better finishes, polished carbide barely wears in alu anyways, and you save a few bucks.
Big Kaiser FCR - Integrated BBT30 toolholder, 25mm, 3 inserts DLC-coated for aluminum/non-ferrous. This thing should come with every Speedio with a Big+ spindle. Hyper rigid design with relatively short gauge length but decent reach. Great metal removal for flatter parts. I run it at 10,400rpm, 270ipm, 0.65in woc, 0.2in doc - about 35 cubic inches/min at 60-70% spindle load. It just sounds great too. Biggest downside is the chips it produces take up a lot of volume compared to a solid carbide roughing tool.
Fraisa MFC 98107 - 1/4" R0.03 4 flute, I use it in 304 stainless. This tool is just cool. MFC stands for multi-functional cutter and they have a bunch of variants, but this particular 98107 line rocks. In particular, it can be used as a high-feed mill, zipping around at 340ipm. I have some shallow pockets to rough out and the cutting parameters that Fraisa gives you blows everything else I've found out of the water. On a machine like a Speedio that can maintain the feed rate, it's an awesome tool for this particular application. (It's also good at basically everything else.)
A particular tool might be one of your favorites because you get great finishes or great MRR, or maybe it lasts longer than everything else, or maybe it's useful in a bunch of materials, or maybe it solves a particular challenge. Whatever it is, I'd love to hear about it.
Bonus points for links, part numbers, machine(s) you use it in, application data, etc. I don't know who's giving out these bonus points, but trust me that you'll get them.
I'll start with a few of my favorites.
Right now I'm using all of these in a Brother Speedio S1000X1 with a 16k Big+ spindle.
Helical 48115 - 1/4" 3 flute for aluminum/non-ferrous. Uncoated carbide. 40deg variable pitch. Everyone needs a nice, generic 1/4" end mill and this one is it for me. It's an absolute workhorse and is good at basically everything... roughing, finishing, slotting, even plunging on occasion. Gives good floor finishes and decent wall finishes, more than good enough for non-critical surfaces. I haven't found another 1/4" that is as generically good in aluminum. If you're mostly milling something like 6061, skip the ZrN coating and just get uncoated. Gives better finishes, polished carbide barely wears in alu anyways, and you save a few bucks.
Big Kaiser FCR - Integrated BBT30 toolholder, 25mm, 3 inserts DLC-coated for aluminum/non-ferrous. This thing should come with every Speedio with a Big+ spindle. Hyper rigid design with relatively short gauge length but decent reach. Great metal removal for flatter parts. I run it at 10,400rpm, 270ipm, 0.65in woc, 0.2in doc - about 35 cubic inches/min at 60-70% spindle load. It just sounds great too. Biggest downside is the chips it produces take up a lot of volume compared to a solid carbide roughing tool.
Fraisa MFC 98107 - 1/4" R0.03 4 flute, I use it in 304 stainless. This tool is just cool. MFC stands for multi-functional cutter and they have a bunch of variants, but this particular 98107 line rocks. In particular, it can be used as a high-feed mill, zipping around at 340ipm. I have some shallow pockets to rough out and the cutting parameters that Fraisa gives you blows everything else I've found out of the water. On a machine like a Speedio that can maintain the feed rate, it's an awesome tool for this particular application. (It's also good at basically everything else.)
