Originally Posted by
braddo
I have been doing quite a bit of reading, and have downloaded several calculators and such and I am still completely in the dark about this question.
I have a 1/8" 2 flute end mill and would like to cut small depth passes (like .005") using a small flex shaft driven handpiece as a spindle in a lightweight CNC.
I am getting answers literally all over the map, from definitely go as fast (RPM) as you can go i.e. 30k RPM and don't "baby it" i.e. high feedrate, to definitely use 8000 RPM, 50 -250 IPM feedrates. I cannot find chipload for these little tiny bits and seemingly cannot use the calculators - the complex ones like gwizard ask what type of mill I have (?) chipload, SFM and other parameters I don't have. Others don't seem to compute anything but just ask for all of the numbers I thought the calc was going to calc.
Originally, since so many folks raved about them, I got some single flute carbide cutters from Onsrud - Dropped a hundred or so on a few, but they just immediately plunge straight in and the single flute seems to be far too aggressive for my lightweight setup. The two flutes look "close" in that I'm getting channels, but with occasional pulling to the side and not as clean as I would like. But don't know which way to go, slower, faster - I've done some "matrixes" slower faster but none seem like they're in the ballpark.
Thanks!