Fly Cutter Attachment for Lathe Faceplate

[garage nut]

I just purchased a Lathe/Mill combination and the first thing I seem to need is a fly cutter.
Still recovering from the cost of all the tools and measuring goodies I find this an brilliant idea, only problem is I did not receive a face plate with my machine.

Now my question can I take a 3" disk and clamp it in the chuck and use it as the face plate or will the side forces damage my chuck?

Is the cutter hispeed steel? How is the cutting edge ground?

[mklotz]

I just purchased a Lathe/Mill combination and the first thing I seem to need is a fly cutter.
Still recovering from the cost of all the tools and measuring goodies I find this an brilliant idea, only problem is I did not receive a face plate with my machine.

Now my question can I take a 3" disk and clamp it in the chuck and use it as the face plate or will the side forces damage my chuck?

Is the cutter hispeed steel? How is the cutting edge ground?

I don't think you need to worry about chuck damage.

You really don't need a disk to convert the chuck into a monster fly cutter. A length of steel, fitted with a spigot to grip in the 3jaw or gripped directly in a 4jaw will work just fine. Drill a hole in the bar to accept the tool holder (or a slot if you want adjustable radius). The tool holder can be cobbled together from a bolt and nut as I did here...

http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/i...y-cutter-58399

Depending on the stiffness of the steel and desired depth of cut, you may want to fix things so the back of the tool holder seats against the face of the chuck to make things more rigid.

Many years ago I made what I'm describing here. I'll try to find it and get a picture to make my description more understandable.

[mklotz]

You really don't need a disk to convert the chuck into a monster fly cutter. A length of steel, fitted with a spigot to grip in the 3jaw or gripped directly in a 4jaw will work just fine. Drill a hole in the bar to accept the tool holder (or a slot if you want adjustable radius). The tool holder can be cobbled together from a bolt and nut as I did here...

http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/i...y-cutter-58399

Depending on the stiffness of the steel and desired depth of cut, you may want to fix things so the back of the tool holder seats against the face of the chuck to make things more rigid.

Many years ago I made what I'm describing here. I'll try to find it and get a picture to make my description more understandable.

OK, I managed to find the tool I mentioned. I wrote a description which can be found here...

http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/f...943#post102905

I've reproduced the two photos from that post below. They may be self-explanatory...

[12bolts]

Toughness maybe. Or hardness.

Depending on the stiffness of the steel

But Youngs modulus tells us that pretty much all steels are pretty much the same "stiffness"

[mklotz]

Toughness maybe. Or hardness.But Youngs modulus tells us that pretty much all steels are pretty much the same "stiffness"

True, but I was referring to the stiffness of the shape, not the material. Since I used a C-section, I was concerned about it deflecting while cutting. A stiffer shape would be better.

I probably should have worded it more clearly.