Hi,
I am currently reducing the width of 1/4in stainless 304L bar from 1.5in to 1.3in. I am accomplishing this by holding the bar on it's side and using a 3 flute 5/8 HSS end mill to "face" it down by a 0.1in pass, turning the piece over, and making another 0.1in pass. The cutter is centered over the .25in width of the bar.
I'm not sure if this is the best way to do this, whether I should use an actual face cutter, or something else. I'm definitely a newbie, but I figured a face cutter wouldn't be able to make this deep of a pass. Anyways after 15 of these 11" bars (I have 60+ to make), the 5/8 end mill sheared off at the collet. Prior to this, it was also getting dull. I don't have a powerfeed so I can't really give an estimate of my feed speed but the chips are not discolored in any way. My spindle speed is 500, and I'm running flood coolant.
I am trying to do this operation in a decent amount of time, and currently it takes 15min per piece including work holding setup etc.
So my questions are: Should I continue using an endmill for this? (If so, what type), Would a different size work faster?, Is this too deep of a pass?
Thank you!