In the days of old I had a 'soggy noodle' H&F HM52. Moved it on after restoring a mid 60's Rossi universal mill.

I had purchased a 1" 'Little Hogger' twin insert cutter for the 52. It was almost a total disaster with an extremely poor finish from lack of rigidity of the 'milling machine' as well as extreme clatter from the loose tolerances in the quill spline and cutter impact. Ear protection was order of the day. Anyway, the Little Hogger got banished to the back of the shelf.
Today I needed to face some 19mm mild steel. I already had an er32 collet chuck fitted to the Rossi so fitted the Little Hogger. Some unkind persons may well say that I was too lazy to look for another draw bar and fit the 100mm insert head.

Cranked the cutting revs up to a bit over 1000rpm and about 1.6mm doc. Good finish; not perfect but very acceptable. No cutter noise but a small amount of gear clatter from the head. Mind you its 50 year old. A happy camper.

All 2+ tonne can be shaken a bit with a 38mm depth edge in very hard cast iron with a Niagara brand 3/4" 2 flute slot drill. I find that these old Niagaras have been the only hss cutters to last in this very abrasive cast iron.

Ken


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