Gunsmithing Milling a laminate wood stock

[ugsly]

Im milling a laminate wood stock, the laminte wood dosent mill real well. What are you guys using for cutters to chew thru this stuff?

Thanks guys,
Casey

 

[deadmilkman]

When I did mine, I used HSS cutters. Mine chattered like crazy until I braced the front end of the stock which had previously been hanging loose. My stock was from Richards Microfit.

Wes

 

[biffj]

I normally use carbide and spin it fast. Wood like high rpm as its soft. You'll note that routers and other woodworking tools tend toward the high end of rpm when compared to metal working tools. If you turn the tool too slow it chips and chunks instead of cutting nicely. If you turn high speed steel too fast especially in wood it will burn up quick. So Carbide is your friend and sharp carbide at that. Spin it fast.

Frank

 

[lash]

What biffj said.

 

[Aggie04]

I ordered some 4 flute end mills from Victor Machinery Exchange to mill out my laminate stock from Richards. USed a drill press and a milling vise from Harbor Freight and it worked really well.

4 Flute High Speed Single End Mills - 1/8" to 2" diameters.

5 in. Rugged Cast Iron Drill Press Milling Vise

 

[jonaddis84]

I've heard about using downward spiral flutes on stocks so that the cutting edge pushes down instead of lifting. No experience with them though, so take with a grain of salt.

 

[Dennis_in_VA]

Where's Chad?

He uses some of those down cutting tools when he does stock inletting.

 

[GH41]

Solid carbide router bit. Somebody tell me about this down cutting bit jona mentioned. Maybe for edge but NOT plunge cutting!

 

[Red_SC]

Milling a laminate wood stock

I've heard about using downward spiral flutes on stocks so that the cutting edge pushes down instead of lifting. No experience with them though, so take with a grain of salt.

First hit I get from Google.

http://www.harveytool.com/prod/Brow...-Mills---Square-Downcut-Single-Flute_114.aspx

 

[LRI]

Osrud. RH cut. LH flute. Run around 3k and 25ipm.

don't like plunge cutting much though.


C

 

[STR]

It's all ready been said. Speed is the problem. Not fast enough on a mill to cut wood, no matter what bit/cutter you use. Instead of cutting, you'll get burning and chipping. Some guys use a router table which they set up just for wood stocks. Sand paper on the right size dowell also works, but takes a while.

 

[LRI]

Sorry. I call bullshit. I've Inletted a zillion stocks with conventional EMs and never burn wood. Even the extremely nasty high resin content stuff from Fibro out in NY.

you use a sharp tool and the machine doesn't care nor does the material or tool.

 

[STR]

Maybe my cutters weren't sharp enough to cut wood after cutting lots of epoxy materials. A zillion stocks, huh? That's a lot of wood. I've only tried it on two so far, but now that you told me the secret, I think I'll buy a brand new cutter and try it agian just for shits and giggles. Thanks.

 

[oldfatguy]

Maybe my cutters weren't sharp enough to cut wood after cutting lots of epoxy materials.

Glass filled epoxy eats tools faster then anything else. You really need sharp (new) cutters to get a good finish.

OFG

 

[ridgeway]

I use a 1", 2 flute HSS ball endmill with no problems at all. Speeds and feeds are key...

 

[LRI]

Here's the deal. Coated carbide on synthetics sucks. Reason is the coating needs a small radius to adhere to on the cutting surface. This means the edge isn't as sharp as a non coated. Works fine in steels and alloys. Rubs resin to melting point in synthetics. Then it heats/cools/heats/cools and this causes thermal cracking. Tool goes to shit. This information came to me directly from the tooling vendor. The solution is non coated carbide.

zillion? Ok, maybe not a zillion. More like a shit load. Working at Dakota Arms/Nesika gave me a great deal of wood to chew through. Plus our own stuff over the last five years.

Wood is kind of a double wammy. The burl, fiddle, crotch that we all love is largely composed of minerals. Minerals deposited in the wood suspended in the sap as the tree grew. The stuff is abrasive and this wears out tooling. Still, if the tool is sharp, of the proper geometry (think endmills made for AL), and the speeds/feeds are dialed in, you'll get very good tool life.

Hope this helps and sorry if my previous comment sounded curt.

C.

 

[mcfred]

The laminate inletting I've done on a manual bridgeport were with sharp uncoated carbide 2-flute emills. Heavy feed and slow rpms climb cutting to avoid tearout. If you get chatter slow the spindle speed way down. I've used HSS too but for non-production it doesn't matter as long as the tool is sharp. A CNC'd be great to have but I don't have that kind of cash for one at the moment.

 

[Clark]

My old 1963 Rockwell 21-100 mill only runs on the slowest speed. I put a 3/8" end mill in and I can inlet this laminated stock for an action it was not made for. It just takes a few minutes.

Use a vacuum cleaner so you can see where you are in a cut.