On 5 Jan 2012 04:24:00 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2012-01-04, Pete Keillor wrote:
What do those of you with horizontal mills do for swarf?

Don't need to go looking for it -- the mill generates plenty for
me without me asking. :-)

Heh, heh.
I finally
got the Hardinge TM mill cranked up and cutting, and have found the
swarf much more obnoxious than lathe stuff. I probably need to
increase feeds to make bigger chunks, but a shield might contain some
of the mess, too.

What speed and what size cutters -- on what material? I tend to
use low enough RPMs so the swarf all goes away from me, and run a shop
vac after every pass or two (this for example with a 6" diameter cutter
stack adding up to 1-3/8" wide, in 6061-T6 aluminum.

Normally, at a sane speed for standard milling cutters for
horizontal mill arbors, the chips will be flying away from you (at least
where I stand with a lever feed on a Nichols horizontal mill). Same if
I've switched to the leadscrew. Feeding the work towards me,
conventional milling.

I need to look at the normal rotation direction again. I may have it
backwards. And measure the speed, although the chips aren't too hot,
so seems reasonable. But the chips are definitely going the wrong
way. I based it on the left handed nut on the end of the arbor, but
sometimes have trouble with that sort of thing, better with analog
than binary.

I've just done conventional. I'm guessing climb milling for finish is
more of a concern with an end mill. Also, this lead screw is way to
worn to try it. I've got the materials for a new lead screw plus
nuts, just need to pull the old one, measure it again, and get to
work.

Now -- if you're using an end mill in a holder instead of
standard cutters on an arbor, your best bet is to stand there with a
shop vac sucking it up as it is created.

Made an AR-15 style sight wrench, used the mill for the teeth. Cool
to finally get it going. Next project will probably be cutting
keyways in its new x-axis screw.

Not familiar with the AR-15 sight wrench, so I don't have a feel
for the amount of swarf which will be created, but I suspect that it is
fairly small compared to what I have been doing mostly.

Actually tiny for the wrench. I used a 0.062" wide cutter for the
wrench, just 4 prongs about 0.070" wide x .030" thick on 3/8" diameter
drill rod, drilled and bored to leave the .030" ring. Had the stock in
a 5C collet in the Hardinge dividing head, same collet as in the lathe
to do the turning. One of the nice things about this mill, 5C spindle
too.

Test cuts with a 1" wide 3" diameter helical cutter on steel scrap
generated a fair amount.

Of course, in commercial operations, there is usually a coolant
pump, and the coolant carries away the swarf, at least until the screen
to separate the swarf from the coolant gets full. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

Thanks, DoN. This mill has a pump, but I suspect it used oil, sump
isn't very large, probably about a gallon. I doubt I'll use it. I
will use the old x-axis feed gearbox, just need the right belt.

Pete Keillor