On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 15:49:20 -0500, Terry Coombs
wrote:

On 3/30/2020 7:57 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"John Doe" wrote in message
...
I tried a hole saw in my cheap drill press. Works perfectly for
hardwood, but doesn't work for 6061 aluminum. I might try removing
some
teeth from a hole saw, see if it cuts a little better without the
chatter. I am familiar with inwards and outwards leaning teeth.

Will I have better luck with a 40mm carbide cutter that has fewer
teeth
and maybe better chip removal? The hole diameter must be near
perfect,
so I might end up buying more than one (different versions) of those
if
it cuts through the material.

Is there a small machine made for cutting shallow holes in metal? I
suppose a good drill press would work, but only if necessary.

I recently purchased DeWalt's small cordless metal cutting bandsaw
and
think it's great for cutting most small/narrow aluminum.

I really want to cut that hole.

Thanks.
The machine tool one short step up from a drill press is a
"mill/drill". In my limited experience with substandard import machine
tools the floor-stand ones have decent power and rigidity to cut steel
but may lack the accuracy to work to 0.001". The RF-31 mill drill from
MSC that I used was good to no better than 0.005". It looks like the
$1200 Harbor Freight 33686 and might have been adequate for fixing
farm equipment, or a hobbyist with the time to fiddle with shims and
adjustments. The old original US-made "Buffalo" mill-drill was precise
enough to rebore small engine cylinders.

https://www.grizzly.com/milling-machines
https://www.woodstockint.com/product...brand=shop-fox
https://littlemachineshop.com/produc...ory=1387807683

I can't suggest which to buy since I lucked onto a 60 year old
US-made original
http://www.lathes.co.uk/clausing%20vertical/
https://www.ebay.com/i/183960131584?chn=ps
of this:
https://www.grizzly.com/products/Gri...wer-Feed/G0729

I've used the 1990's Enco 100-5100 version of it after cleaning up
some small castings that were factory "finished" to wood stove
tolerance and considered it the minimum I'd accept for making small
machinery with moving parts; shafts and bearings etc. Like my Clausing
it can be disassembled into pieces small and light enough to carry
up/down stairs.

Unfortunately the good old home shop sized US-made machine tools are
now worn, hard to find and priced like new imports.



* I gotta disagree with your opinion of the new machines ... well ,
some of them . My (Wholesale Tools ZX45) RF45 clone is rigid and
accurate enough to machine anything I'm capable of doing . It wasn't
cheap at over 1800 bucks , but after the addition of a 3 axis DRO and X
axis power feed I think it's every bit as capable as a Bridgeport .
Geared head and a dovetail column are the 2 reasons it won out over an
RF31 type mill-drill .

The dovetail column mini mills are decent enough hobby mills. Far far
far better than the round column mills. You did good.

Gunner
__

"Journalists are extremely rare and shouldn’t be harmed, but propagandists are everywhere and should be hunted for sport"

Yeah..with no bag limit.




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