[TacPyro]

Hello all. I am milling with an MN135 from Novakon (CX3) and was just curious what is the best tool to face, or surface mill aluminum with the quick change tooling? I have been using endmills, but I bet that I could get a better surface finish with a fly cutter or similar tool.
Can anyone recommend a tool and source?
I also just finally received the long awaited G0602 10x22 lathe. I would like to install a DRO system on the machine but I'm not sure where to start. Any tips on this would be great as well.

Thanks for all the great help.

Blane

[Hans_G]

I installed a DRO on my G0602. The Grizzly G0602 Yahoo group has some good pics of a non-grizzy 10x22 w/ a DRO (might be a 9x19, but same ideas apply). I bought a cheap DRO on ebay (been really happy with it too). CDCO Tools also has pretty good prices if you don't want to go the ebay route. I spent several days just holding the scales in various places and scratching my head til I came up with a mounting scheme that I was happy with.

[TacPyro]

Hans, That's great info! What size DRO did you end up purchasing, or how did you go about sizing the DRO to your machine?

[Hans_G]

I think it was 12"x36" (overall length, about 7" x 28" of travel). The 36" scale hangs about 2-3" past the end of the bed, but for the price (I paid $380, ebay seller was efasttools), it's been great. No 3rd axis or RPM inputs, but I'm still really happy with it. You could definitely get away with smaller Z travel. X length and travel of 7" is just about right, could be a little longer and not hurt anything, but realistically I use about 2" of travel on the cross slide. There are some ebay sellers that have a wider range of scales for available, but their packages are more expensive.

As for your original question about surfacing/surface finishes... a fly cutter works great and is generally less expensive than a face mill, but a face mill can remove more material per pass, provided your mill has the power and rigidity to handle it. I'm not familiar with the novakon quickchange tooling, but 1/2" shank and R8 fly cutters are available from CDCO Tools for cheap. You can get a QCTP and tool holders for the G0602 there too (I did the QCTP first, DRO a close second).