Sharp swarf

[AndrewP]

I've been making Rob Roy valve gear all week, having drilled all the holes in my laser cut valve rods in the wrong place I thought I'd do it the hard way.
Made up a drilling jig from some 1/16" gauge plate by co-ordinate drilling the holes and then milled 2 reference edges and hardened it right out. Sheared off some 1/16" bms from a sheet, clamped the lot under the mill and drilled through the jig - holes in right place
I had bought some brand new Clarkson 5/8" end mills cheap so used one to bring the stack of 4 down to size. Deep Joy - like a hot knife through butter, compared to the (chinese) titanium coated cheese things I had been used to but oh the swarf - just about invisible but you can't half feel it
Chain drilled, sawed and filed the inside shape and am now turning up some filing buttons for the ends - 7/32" one end and 1/4" t'other !
Quite satisfying really.

Somewhere in there should have been make an aluminium sub table for the mill to bolt the stack to for milling - cheaper than dinging the table!

[Deleted]

Apr 24, 2008 20:41:02 GMT AndrewP said:

I had bought some brand new Clarkson 5/8" end mills cheap so used one to bring the stack of 4 down to size. Deep Joy - like a hot knife through butter, compared to the (chinese) titanium coated cheese things I had been used to but oh the swarf - just about invisible but you can't half feel it

There is absolutely NO point buying cheap cutters ! Clarkson cutters may seem expensive but they are a LOT better ! Last longer and produce much better results all round. The company I work for bought some long series 1 1/2" end mills with some Chinese writing on the side and you could bend them .007" with your thumb ! "YOU GETS WHAT YOU PAYS FOR" as one might say.

[Tel]

I've just lashed out on a few solid carbide endmills - Oh wot joy!

[ron]

I've got a good collection of carbide end mills and slot drills collected over the years on Ebay, hardly ever use anything else now, the last I looked they were attracting a bit more interest and higher prices so people must be cottoning on [unfortunately ]
Ron