Fly Cutter with R8 arbor for the mill..Plans available by Rossbotics.

[jjr2001]

Thanks Doug, this is a great one!
I wanted to make this one when I first put eyes on it. This works out to be the best fly cutter
I have. Two others in my quiver are either too big or too light for my mini mill. Anyhow you can
get the prints from HMT via this link:
http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/f...9585#post27581
I used hot rolled steel that I had on hand. It was 1 3/8" in diameter so just a bit smaller
than the 1.5" speced. Followed the plans and this one is now my best fly cutter.

Cheers, JR

[rossbotics]

That came out nice JR. it does leave a nice finish and you can run it at a pretty high RPM ! I did find another use for it other than just a fly cutter, it did a great job on creating a grip pattern on the new vise jaws I made for my bench vise too.

Thanks for posting your completed project. click the photo to enlarge

Doug

[jjr2001]

Thanks Doug, I never would have thought of using the fly cutter for that pattern.
If you had not posted how it was done I would have thought hours were expended
with a rotary table and end mill! Your method would be so fast in comparison.

Cheers, JR

[Toolmaker51]

Thanks Doug, I never would have thought of using the fly cutter for that pattern.
If you had not posted how it was done I would have thought hours were expended
with a rotary table and end mill! Your method would be so fast in comparison.

Cheers, JR

Not unlike process milling cylinder heads for gasket retention. You'll enhance the knurl or checkering effect enlarging the cutting radius somewhat beyond edges of the plate being milled. Attaining the scored finish by reversing normal speed and feed ratios, once a true plane is cut.

Another way tilts the head slightly, with a cutter ground to impart desired tool marks. Easier said than done, however.
Many old machine tools were surfaced, by an unknown process name, in just this way, inclined cutters. The pattern shows up frequently on radial drill bases. Long, parallel, ultra shallow 'grooves', separated by a narrow land.
As example, a 5/8" [.625, or 15.8mm] cutter inclined 1°, lower edge .002 or .003 into surface, stepped over .062 [1.58mm] or .687 [17,44mm]. Whatever surface width is divided by equally spaced tracks. Those tracks end [disappear] neatly in coolant troughs. Economy and machine sense tells me feed direction was reversed in the trough airspace. Old timers declared purpose broke surface tension of coolant under large flat parts. The narrow lands reduce contact friction [and scratches] positioning same large items as well.
I seem unable to create a browser search for visual examples. Machining such a surface would be exponentially faster than Biax type scraping or flaking, which certainly don't render connected airways.
Way back (x 8 or 9), Downey CA, I ran a monster Archdale radial drill, #6 taper and crazily rigid. I drilled pilot holes for 3" leader pins several times, naturally even larger for bushings, never used the largest bits we had...later pilot holes were bored for position on a Lucas horizontal. Guess who tabled those 11 ton molds? Anyway, the column was 18 or 20 inch, but arm was extraordinarily short, about 48". Whenever drilling backs of mold bases, or anything with protrusions on top side, I'd have to affix immense block table. It had coupler for compressed air, globe valve and venting so she'd float from the sled onto the machine base. No forklift required, positive that fixture weighed 6,000 pounds. Also positive the milled surface bled enough air to cushion fixture without suspending [?] it. Had that slid off, being drawn an quartered would only be initial retaliation.
Archdale Machine Tools Nothing even close (or nearly as handsome operator) lol. Like K&T, Cincinnati etc, no iron shortage in British machinery. But you'll chuckle at some of the captions...

[jjr2001]

Thanks TM, I enjoyed the shop tour. Impressive size of the "imperial" machines. (pun intended)
That is an amazing web site with very interesting and informative information.
Thanks again, JR

[mwmkravchenko]

Just goes to show us that age old ideas have their place. And it's nigh near impossible To match the finish you achieve with a fly cutter with anything else. Plus the tooling is way less expensive.

[jjr2001]

Thank You mwmkravchenko, it was an interesting tool to make. The overall speed
is quite good when surfacing with one.

Cheers, JR

[wizard69]

Nice fly cutter there. I can see where having a set of these in various diameters would be nice. I have to believe that this is a better balanced solution than some fly cutter designs.

[Toolmaker51]

Nice fly cutter there. I can see where having a set of these in various diameters would be nice. I have to believe that this is a better balanced solution than some fly cutter designs.

Partly that it's extremities aren't outside bearing diameters of the spindle. Retraction and locking quill also results with improved finish.

[Jon]

Nice work! When you post a tool you made from homemadetools.net plans, you get another set of plans of your choice for free. Let me know which ones you want and I'll get them sent over to you.