End mills

[rhncue]

Just wondering what brands and where different cue makers were getting their 1/32 end mills. I usually use the 8.00 ones from Atlas. I haven't tried the more expensive ones from them because there is no discount for buying a number at a time. The ones I am using seem to hold up fairly well but was wondering if other brands are closer to size or cut better, last longer or what. I have bought differant imports and from J&J and they were to brittle and broke to easily. I just bought a dozen from MSC but haven't tried them yet.

What's your opinions?

Dick

 

[Cue Crazy]

I was breaking bits left and right with My panto, but the last time I got some from Chris. I have to use a hogger, and cleanup bit, so I got 5 of each, and they seem to last alittle while, have'nt broken one yet, but did burn a couple of the small ones up after alot of use. I still have three of each that are unused. They last alot longer then the ones I was using.

I have an new/old stock case of 50 IBM carbides, grade C91, manufactured By ford MFG., but they are the spiral type, and .033x1.050, so alittle too small for a manual machine. They are probably no good to You either, but If you would like a few, Your welcome to have some.

Greg C

 

[Murray Tucker]

Just wondering what brands and where different cue makers were getting their 1/32 end mills. I usually use the 8.00 ones from Atlas. I haven't tried the more expensive ones from them because there is no discount for buying a number at a time. The ones I am using seem to hold up fairly well but was wondering if other brands are closer to size or cut better, last longer or what. I have bought differant imports and from J&J and they were to brittle and broke to easily. I just bought a dozen from MSC but haven't tried them yet.

What's your opinions?

Dick

http://www.precisebits.com/applications/cuetools.htm

 

[Sheldon]

I'll second Murray's recommendation. Ron's tools are a bit spendy, but worth EVERY PENNY. He's a super nice guy too!

 

[mark smith]

try moving air across the tool. a supplier that i bought from (i think it was drill bit city) told me that my tool life would be increased by doing this. he recommended using a vacuum. since my milling machine is enclosed i use positive air flow, fish tank aerator. i plan to upgrade that to a salt water unit for even more air. i do not have hard figures to support this but i for sure am getting more use out of them.

mark smith
mark smith custom cues
(479) 970-0056
mark@marksmithcues.com

 

[Arnot Wadsworth]

End Mills

I'll second Murray's recommendation. Ron's tools are a bit spendy, but worth EVERY PENNY. He's a super nice guy too!

They look like the same bits that Atlas sells but more expensive.

Are they the same?

Good cuemaking,

 

[rhncue]

They look like the same bits that Atlas sells but more expensive.

Are they the same?

Good cuemaking,

I just talked to them and order some. Yes, they are the same ones that Atlas supplies. They discount them if you buy 10 or more which brings their price in line with Atlas. The man I talked to was very helpfull though and the way he explained to me is that I'm running way to slow for his endmills. He told me of a test to determine the proper speed. At the moment I make for 3 passes at 35" a minute and he says I should be running that speed on a single pass. Will see.

Dick

 

[Sheldon]

I just talked to them and order some. Yes, they are the same ones that Atlas supplies. They discount them if you buy 10 or more which brings their price in line with Atlas. The man I talked to was very helpfull though and the way he explained to me is that I'm running way to slow for his endmills. He told me of a test to determine the proper speed. At the moment I make for 3 passes at 35" a minute and he says I should be running that speed on a single pass. Will see.
Dick

Years ago, Ron sent me a bunch of bits and told me to go ahead and ramp up the speed on them until they broke.... you might be surprised at what they will take! Your denser woods (especially cocobolo) will require lower speeds, but you can really plow through stuff like maple.
He used to have some really nice tutorial pages on his site, that pertained to feed speeds, and cut direction, etc. Last time I checked, some were saying "page not found". Hopefully he can get those back up, there was some really excellent info there.
http://www.thinktink.com/stack/volumes/voliii/tutorials/woodtutorials.asp

 

[Cue Crazy]

try moving air across the tool. a supplier that i bought from (i think it was drill bit city) told me that my tool life would be increased by doing this. he recommended using a vacuum. since my milling machine is enclosed i use positive air flow, fish tank aerator. i plan to upgrade that to a salt water unit for even more air. i do not have hard figures to support this but i for sure am getting more use out of them.

mark smith
mark smith custom cues
(479) 970-0056
mark@marksmithcues.com

That's what I do, I have three pumps hooked up to 2 air lines. One on each side of the endmill, and It blows the pocket out as I'm cutting, so theres no extra material lying around to heat the endmills up. Greg C

 

[rhncue]

try moving air across the tool. a supplier that i bought from (i think it was drill bit city) told me that my tool life would be increased by doing this. he recommended using a vacuum. since my milling machine is enclosed i use positive air flow, fish tank aerator. i plan to upgrade that to a salt water unit for even more air. i do not have hard figures to support this but i for sure am getting more use out of them.

mark smith
mark smith custom cues
(479) 970-0056
mark@marksmithcues.com

I've got plenty of air blowing on my cutter. I don't have a problem with the cutters I get from Atlas breaking, it's the cheaper ones that I get from the tooling distributers such as J&J and MSC and such. The fellow I talked to over at this site told me that the reason for this was that they are designed for cutting metal, not wood. I told him that I normally run my cutter at around 25 to 30,000 rpm and he told me to increase it to at least 50 or 60,000 rpm and it will cut much better. He said he runs his cutters at 100,000 rpm. My Precise has a top speed of 75,000 and I don't like running it that fast as it's got to be hard on bearings and such. I once had a commuter come out of a router and go thru a wall and it was only turning around 25,000. I don't want one coming out and going thru me!

Dick

 

[hadjcues]

try moving air across the tool. a supplier that i bought from (i think it was drill bit city) told me that my tool life would be increased by doing this. he recommended using a vacuum. since my milling machine is enclosed i use positive air flow, fish tank aerator. i plan to upgrade that to a salt water unit for even more air. i do not have hard figures to support this but i for sure am getting more use out of them.

mark smith
mark smith custom cues
(479) 970-0056
mark@marksmithcues.com

Nice idea Mark... I have a couple of those salt water pumps and they're consistent and long lasting enough to give you that cooling thingie for bits... 24/7

 

[cueman]

I put a 1/16" precise cut end mill in my manual inlay machine and set the depth at .100" and was taking one pass up and one pass back total 25 inches of movement, total time 14 seconds. I just had my son time me a few times to get an average to see how many inches a minute I was running. It comes out to a little over 107 inches a minute. When I got to the very edge of the pocket I slowed down to about a third of that speed to get a little less vibration. Those bits do hold up well but breaking one sure is expensive.