Vertical and Horizontal Mills

Vertical Mill
Parts
 Base and Column
 Knee
 Saddle
 Table
 Ram
 Tool Head
 Quill Feed
Cutter Holding
– No more overhang than is necessary
 R8 Taper
 Solid Collet (most rigid)
 Split Collet
Vertical Milling Cutters
End mills
 2 or more flutes
 single or double end
 straight or helix flute
 roughing end mills
Geometry Forming cutters
 dovetail - 45 or 60 degree
 t-slot
 woodruff key
 shell end mills
 three flute tapered - used for mold
making, die work, patterns
Misc cutters
 Fly cutters - single point tool often
consisting of high speed or carbide tool
– take light face cuts from large surface areas
 Indexible tooling - many cutter types and
shapes
– eliminate resharpening
 Face mills - flat surfaces
Horizontal Mill
Parts
 Base and Column
 Knee
 Saddle
 Table
 Spindle
 Overarm
Universal Horizontal Mill
 similar to plain except it has has an
additional housing that supports the
table and allows table to swivel 45 deg in
either direction in horiz plane
– used to machine helical slots or grooves in
mill cutters and twist drills, otherwise they
are the same as the plain machines
Types of spindles, arbors, and
adapters
 front end of spindle nose has a tapered
socket in a standard milling machine
taper. This taper aligns the milling
machine adapter or cutter arbor
 driving force is provided by two keys
located on the spindle nose
 these engage slots on the adaptor or arbor
Milling machine spindle nose
tapers
 #30, #40, #50 (most common), #60
Cutters may be attached
 a. directly to the spindle nose
 b. on a taper shank arbor (our
application)
Taper shank arbor assembly
 arbor itself
 spacing collars - take up space between
cutter and end of arbor
 bearing collar - rides in arbor support
bearing
 arbor support bearing - supports outer
end of the arbor
Horizontal Milling Cutters
Arbor driven cutters (most
common)
Plain arbor driven cutters - for
removing material across
entire surface (most common
operation) - 3 types
 1. light duty - more teeth
 2. heavy duty - less / heavier teeth
 Note: any width 3/4” and less will have
straight teeth = more chatter
Side milling cutters - for
machining steps or grooves
 stagger tooth
 inserted tooth (indexable)
 1/2 side
Slitting saws - for slotting and
cut-off
 stagger tooth
 inserted tooth (indexable)
 side
Geometry forming
 single angle - 45 and 60 most common
 double angle - 45, 60 and 90 most common
 concave - go by the cutter shape not by
the geometry created
 convex
 corner rounding
 gear cutters
Misc. Horizontal Milling setups
 1. straddle milling
 2. gang milling - to machine special
shapes and contours on workpiece
– cutter rpm calculated for largest dia cutter
in gang
Day 2
Work holding methods
1.) Vise (most common)
 plain vise
 swivel vise
 universal vise -swivels 90 deg in vert and
360 in horiz plain
Vise operation
 manual
 air
 hydraulic
Use a lead or rubber hammer
to strike handle to tighten
as possible without danger of
hitting vise
Proper part orientation in vise
for cutting pressures
 pressure against solid jaw (best)
 pressure against movable jaw
 pressure parallel to jaws (worst)
Soft jaws
2.) Mounting directly to the
table
 strap clamps, T-bolts, and step blocks
 protect work piece surface with shims
when necessary
 use parallels or shims under work piece
as needed
 work piece distorted or damaged with
excessive pressures
3.) Pallets
Work edge locating
 offset edge finder (accurate)
 dial indicator (accurate)
 touch off method (less accurate)
 paper shim (less accurate)
Hole center locating
Climb (down) vs. Conventional
Milling (up)
Selection depends on:
 is there backlash compensation
 required surface finish
 type of material being cut
Climb milling
 results in good surface finish - chips not
swept back through cut
 avoid unless backlash is compensated for
Conventional milling (normally
used)
 surface finish not as good
Vertical Milling Depth of cut -
End mills
 Roughing cuts with standard end mills in
steel - don’t exceed 1/2 dia. cutter dia.
 Finish cuts - .005 - .010”
Horizontal Milling Depth of cut
- Arbor driven cutters
 roughing cuts = .100 to 200”
 finish cuts = .015 to .030”
 no less than .015”
Squaring vise and machine
head
Vertical Mill
 Head squared to table
 Vise squared to table
Horizontal Mill
 Table squared by mounting indicator on
table (Never the column)
 Vise squared to table with indicator
mounted on overarm