machining wood :) help please

[ieezitin]

Hello guys,

I have a friend coming over my shop this week end and he wants me to mill a piece of mahogany slab 1’’ thick, he wants a small groove (90Deg end mill) x .200 deep, The radius of this will be about 8 inches. The outside diameter will be 11-1/2” ( end mill ) this will be all done on a rotary table.

My question is there any techniques involved in doing this on a conventional metal milling machine, router bits? Endmills? I have never machined wood on my machine.


Thanks Tony.

[dallen]

you didn't say how big a diameter, I cut wood on my mill from time to time, one thing you have to watch for is splintering but you said your doing a radius so I don't see that as a problem. If its a straight sided slot that your doing I would us an endmill router bits are designed to run at router speeds.

have a vacumn cleaner hose handy to suck up the chips while running you can catch a lot of the dust by holding the hose up to the cutter.

DA

[ieezitin]

Dallen..

Its going to end up around 11-1/2" dia, the groove will be 8 odd inches dia. the vacuum seams a good idea.

I have sharp end mills for the outside, i have a brand new 90Deg slot drill..

Anthony.

[TomG]

Use a brand new end mill and run the rpm wide open. Other than keeping the chips clear, that's about all you need to know.

Tom

[f350ca]

An end mill will probably cut the cleanest, and at .2 deep you'll probably have no trouble. I've tried end mills cutting deep mortises but my mill tops out at about 3200 rpm and they tend to burn, a carbide router bit seamed to do better, the router bit handles the shavings better.

[ieezitin]

Well here are the fruits on my endeavors. I took note of all that replied, and this is what i came up with.











Notes...

I was told too run my milling cutters full out, that was a disaster, i toned it down to 1500RPM with a 3/4 end mill, it shaved wood off not milled. I used a wood router profiling tool to profile the rounded edged at the same speed. The type with a ball bearing on the end, i used the edge reference for the bearing contact. The wood i was milling was Mahogany, its a hard wood, it made my cutters hot but tolerable. Dust was kicking up, i used i vacuum to get rid of all debris.

Hope you all learn.. Anthony.

[Micktoon]

Hi Anthony , Looks like it turned out really well Hope it did not make too much mess to clear up in the end.
Cheers Mick

[terrywerm]

Very nice!! I think it turned out quite well. Was the photo taken shortly after the mill work, or did you sand it some first?

[EdK]

Very nice Anthony. The base turned out well. Mahogany is great to work with.

Ed

[DaveH]

Really nice Anthony

DaveH