What is the best way to cut chamfers

Hello,

I have a 30 mm thick steel plate that has 2 types of chamfers, 30 degree chamfer and two 45 degree chamfers. I was wondering what type of chamfer mill would you recommend for such a job?

Currently we have a guy who uses hand held chamfer cutter and an angle grinder to do these and it's a pain in the neck for him. And not to mention quite time consuming.

Since we got an old milling machine Maho MH 600 E we are trying to apply it to as many parts as possible to make life easier for everyone. Tool holder ISO 40 DIN 69871, rpm 80 - 4000, spindle 8 kW. We mostly do welding jobs so machining is still very new to us.

Thanks

I mean, worst case.. a novice can use a countersink as a chamfer tool. It’s not very difficult to clamp a vise or snug down clamps and put a tool in the spindle. You’re a welding shop, surely you have a track torch, could you not rough out the chamfer on the torch and then file in the face? What level of precision is required? If the parts are to be welded, just throw a chamfer mill in and eyeball it square and go to town.

Hi,

We don't have a track torch. The chamfers don't need to be precise or have a high surfice finish, the biggest problem we have is it takes too long to do them by hand. We do have a 2 hand held plasma cutter, but they are used constantly to cut other parts and it would really bottle neck the production. Milling machine is more available. The plates are not for us, so they have to be in "presentable" condition.

Since i don't know much about milling, i would like to know if it is smart to use milling machine for such a job.

How about a weld bevelling machine

Chamfo beveller for welding preparation

They make all sorts of chamfer machines. For a small part like you have I would go for a stationary, bench mount machine and just run the parts through it. If you are doing a lot of them, get one for the 45s and another for the 30s. That way you are not setting it up over and over.

chamfer machine - Bing images

Yes, a mill can chamfer just fine, and they make them in the exact angle you need. 90 degree gives you 45, 60 gives you 30.

This seems like a perfect milling job. Usually it’s better to chamfer the part at the same time that the contour is cut. If you have parts that vary in length, the edge held by the “front jaw” or whichever jaw moves will cause your chamfer size to change. Whether this is acceptable depends on your tolerances, but it sounds like this should work fine for your purposes.

Your drawing shows a fairly clean edge between where the chamfer stops and starts at the base of that part. Realize that cutting this on the mill will produce a corner with a radius. The smaller the tool you use, the smaller the radius.

Regular Length Solid Carbide TIALN Coated Chamfer Mill - MariTool

I have had great luck with Helical chamfer tools. Available in many angles . . . link:
Helical Solutions - Chamfer Mills - Helical Flute, 3 & 5 Flute - High Performance

I did not see where you said how many of these you have to make but if you do many of these then a jig on your mill table could really help out.

Well the 45 deg's are easy enough. Clamp the plate straight to the table with two studs through each hole. I would probably use one clamp that is open ended on one side so you can just loosen it to pull it out. Use a stop on the same face, either just a key in your T slot or a plate high enough that it can still hit the part after the fist side is done. Flip the part and repeat. Using something like this...Conversion from type 'DBNull' to type 'String' is not valid. . I have the E45 that takes TPMT inserts. Do the same for the 30 deg by buying a 60 deg one.

Alternatively if you don't yet have a nice facemill for the machine invest in a 45 Deg one and you could use one tool for facing and for those edge breaks.
ISCAR Milling Product Line I have one of the Older S845 that only takes the inserts with 8 edges but it has served me well.

Only reason I linked Iscar because it was the easiest to find and I am familiar with their site. They have become quite pricey so shop around and see what you can get.

NAST555 said:

....Clamp the plate straight to the table with two studs through each hole. I would probably use one clamp that is open ended on one side so you can just loosen it to pull it out. Use a stop on the same face, either just a key in your T slot or a plate high enough that it can still hit the part after the fist side is done. Flip the part and repeat

Alternatively if you don't yet have a nice facemill for the machine invest in a 45 Deg one and you could use one tool for facing and for those edge breaks.

Click to expand...

I’m going to agree and disagree, but there’s a hundred ways to skin a cat. If you have a vise that’s at least 12” front to back, put your plain vise jaws on the outsides, and if you have to use parallels do so. Grab a good old fashioned vise, put a stop somewhere, and you’re good to go. It looks like there’s plenty of stock to hold on to. It’ll also take more time to add plugs and bolts than just tightening a vise.

All that said, it just depends on what you’ve got lying around and the dimensional conditions of your parts. If all you have is a clamping kit, and you’re only doing 5 parts, it’ll work just fine. If you have 50 of em, I recommend a vise. If the holes are perfect and the sides are torch cut, might want to do as NAST says.

And again with the face mill, since some of the chamfers don’t go all the way across the edge, a 3” face mill is going to leave a 1.5” radius, and since it’s close to a .5” deep chamfer, it’ll leave quite a bit of uncut edge. I attached a photo with a drawing in millimeters (Playing with fusion360. Thus far, I hate it.). The length of said radius is almost half of the edge you’re trying to chamfer.

Morderesh said:

Hi,

We don't have a track torch. The chamfers don't need to be precise or have a high surfice finish, the biggest problem we have is it takes too long to do them by hand. We do have a 2 hand held plasma cutter, but they are used constantly to cut other parts and it would really bottle neck the production. Milling machine is more available. The plates are not for us, so they have to be in "presentable" condition.

Since i don't know much about milling, i would like to know if it is smart to use milling machine for such a job.

Click to expand...

Get or make a track torch.

I have seen this done with 2 torches, one coming up from the underside.

Techtongda CG1-100C Double Torch Track Burner Portable Gas Cutting Machine 110V 767421721746 | eBay