Thread: Ripper end mills

Are the end mills your talking about the ones with inserts all the way down the spiral, or a roughing end mill?

Dave

Hi .RC,

No, never used them, but I've often wondered how good they were, on the basis of your experience. I think I'll get a couple. Thanks.

Regards
Ray
PS Merry Christmas to the herd.

PS Dave, I'm thinking of these ones...


Micrograin Rippa Cutter In Sizes 6mm To 20mm For Fast Dry Hogging

If thats the type, I bought some of them from CTC early last year and they do work good. I bought the set for harder steels and SS, their are cheaper ones for soft metals and aluminium but it's not much cheaper from memory.


Dave

I only used them a little bit when I was milling in the bench lathe. They made a big difference. If you have a crappy mill - or lathe - they will give it super powers.

Yep (again assuming HSS roughing endmills). They're my first stop for any bulk removal of material, and quick jobs where the finish doesn't really matter.

Far quicker than a regular endmill, and with flood coolant they're almost twice as fast again in most steels... Well and truly worth the money (bought from CTC).

Video of it in action...

shaping and milling - YouTube

What was your DOC on the shaper, RC? Looks like 5 or 6 mm. Mine should do that but the ram starts to lift after 2 or 3 mm.

Hi .RC,

Impressive video

I've tried in vain to see the detail of the cutter in the shaper, in one shot it looks like an insert... stepping through frame by frame hasn't helped. Any chance of a picture of the cutter or some more detail..

Regards
Ray

Hi RC
Your set up looks just like mine. I have one of those 20mm diameter CTC roughing end mills and fond 400rpm and a slow feed speed with plenty of coolant and they sound like they not working hard at all at 15mm depth of cut. Do you think at 20mm depth of cut you are at the top limit. I noticed that your ER40 collet chuck is about 50 mm longer than mine, this must load up your machine a bit more. That shaper sure looks and sounds great,great video.
Bob

Originally Posted by Bryan

What was your DOC on the shaper, RC? Looks like 5 or 6 mm. Mine should do that but the ram starts to lift after 2 or 3 mm.

It was about the 5mm..... I think it would have been near it's limit.... it is only a small shaper.. The ram on this one is worn as well, and I have the gibs snugged in as tight as I can without it binding... the ram really needs a rescrape the table slides are near new still, but I really want to get rid of it and get a 6ft planer.... But planers are rarer then anything...

Originally Posted by RayG

Hi .RC,

Impressive video

I've tried in vain to see the detail of the cutter in the shaper, in one shot it looks like an insert... stepping through frame by frame hasn't helped. Any chance of a picture of the cutter or some more detail..

Regards
Ray

It is just a bog standard lathe tool grind.... It is 16mm square chinese HSS from CTC tools... I find this HSS is not as good a quality as the swedish, UK HSS that I have, but it does the job..

I ground up a shear tool this morning and tried it out before I had to go visiting, the finish I got with it was encouraging.. I use a 600 grit diamond wheel to finish off the tools after I grind them... Saves using a stone..

Originally Posted by krisfarm

Hi RC
Your set up looks just like mine. I have one of those 20mm diameter CTC roughing end mills and fond 400rpm and a slow feed speed with plenty of coolant and they sound like they not working hard at all at 15mm depth of cut. Do you think at 20mm depth of cut you are at the top limit. I noticed that your ER40 collet chuck is about 50 mm longer than mine, this must load up your machine a bit more. That shaper sure looks and sounds great,great video.
Bob

Hard to say what the limit is, the machine did not seem to be hammering ot struggling..

Yes this ER40 collet chuck does stick out much further then I would like... The mill is an ISO30 spindle and that is part of the reason why it has so much stickout...

I have an ISO40 ER40 collet chuck and with it the stick out is no where near as much... Your turret mill is ISO 40 isn't it? Just wondering what diameter the quill is... Mine is the same as the standard bridgeport at 3 3/8 inches or 78mm or so... The ISO 40 ones can be much bigger, I have seen spec sheets stating 100mm, 105mm, 110mm and 115mm quills on them... The bigger the better for rigidity..

Some pics...

First up the shaper tool cutting the heavy cut, just a bog standard lathe type tool




Now the shear tool

Now the finish obtained byt he roughly ground shear tool.... The shaper puts very very faint diagonal lines across the work for some reason



And what I am making...

CA style tool holders....

Thanks RC, Sure does a nice job.
Makes me more enthused than ever to get the Varnamo cleanup finished and get it running.

Regards
Ray

I'm glad the ripper question was raised. I've always wondered about how good they might be but never bought one. I will now.

Brings me to another question. How many people use shell end mills? ( I think Pete F has a collection) The cutters are fairly abundant but require matching arbors. The abundant cutters are invariably imperial and the arbors more often than not metric. What I find attractive about them is that they are short. An 1 1/2" end mill in an ER40 chuck isn't.


BT

Thanks .RC.
My mill has a 85.8mm (3&3/8") diameter spindal with the ISO 40 taper, which would be the same diameter as yours I would think. When I ordered the mill I was told I could ger the 100mm spindal with ISO 40 taper fitted, so I ordered that combination,but the factory came back and stated that they no longer offered this due to rigidity problems. The larger spindal sizes 100-115mm were available but only in the bigger head casting that could not be fitted to my sized machine. I would have ordered the bigger machine but it was too tall to fit in my workshop. I did end up with a 100kg heavier base casting at no extra cost.Enjoyed your latest shaper video that shear finishing tool just slides through with little effort, once again demonstrating the importance of a rigid set up, hard to beat shapers for this, the bigger the better.
Bob