Tom Senior depth of cut

Hi Piero,

I own a Tom Senior M1 with knuckle head and horizontal capability. Using the knuckle head, I find that using 2mt collets over a Clarkson collet chuck greatly improves the cutting performance. Less overhang equals more rigidity.

My machine is sat on leveling shims but is not bolted down.

So to repeat what everybody else is saying. Try a new cutter. Say a 10mm end mill in a piece of EN1A. Run the machine at 800rpm and take a 3mm deep cut. Set the feed to low. Use a sulphur based cutting fluid brushed on.

I was doing this yesterday and the machine was eating it. 😉

Good luck,

Steve.

Grate

I have something to shoot for!!!

being a Tom senior user (fishy-steve) has given me a test that works on his mill

so all being equal, I can see how mine does with them given parameters

very intersecting about the 2MT collet over the Clarkson

I use a Clarkson over the ER32 cheapnees collet holder that I bought, but yes that does make sense for rigidity.

don't know if id like all the collect changes though

Edited By Piero Franchi on 10/11/2017 18:46:16

I Have a Centec 2A It was a bit noisy taking a decent cut.

I thought, I've nipped up all the gibs then backed them off tiny bit, locked the non movers, why make such a din?

Then I noticed that the oil film between the table top and knee joint was moving. A quick retighten and it went quiet and just cut.

Mine sits on 4 " wheels - they don't move.

I would suspect that your gib strips are looser than you think. Try locking the cutting axis till you can't move it, then back it off till it just moves and see what happens to the cut.

I can take an 0.080"- 0.120" (2-3mm in new money) DOC with a 5/8" (16mm in new money) end mill or slot drill in steel all day long.

1973 M1 with the S quill feed head and a Vertex collet chuck. Machine sits on it's cabinet which sits on 4x2" box section steel to raise the height. Not bolted down. No vibration.

Those wheels, castors are not what milling machines are meant to live on.

Looks to be a fairly sturdy machine,should be no need to bolt it to the floor,never mind wheeling it around.

Mills that size are not wheelbarrows,they like to be left alone.

My LUX mill is bolted to a box tubing frame just sitting on the floor [ I dont like drilling floors unless I have to ] and I dont have any bother with it dancing around. I think perhaps blunt cutters/wrong feed rate might be the real problem.

As an aside,I wonder how does the LUX compare to the Tom Senior,or would that be considered an insult?

The LUX was all I could afford at the time and there is very little secondhand stuff over this way. Still,it does the job !

Having only spent no more than 15 minuets on the mill today

I can say, a lot of my problems were due to a dull cutter

I did the above cut, 10mm new cutter (Chinese to be honest) 3mm depth of cut and the cutter was pushing the work away not pulling its self into the work (which was what I was doing when I had the trouble)

The Tom senior cut it like butter

So To conclude, I was using a old cutter and the direction of feed was causing the cutter to pull the work into its self (the cutter was turning clockwise, and I was feeding the work from the left of the cutter to wards the cutter)

an other hands up for forums and helpfull people

Edited By Piero Franchi on 11/11/2017 17:51:11

Edited By Piero Franchi on 11/11/2017 17:53:05

Are you climb milling?

Perhaps you did not understand this question from my earlier post. Small mills are not best suited to climb milling. The heavyweights can cope with that cutting direction and cutters should last longer (as in doing more useful work), but we tend to only climb mill (on hobby type mills) when cutting tiny slither to make the finish as good as possible.

Glad you have had some success. Now consult the feeds and speeds info for other cutters and material combinations.  Basically the same whether milling or turning. But err on the conservative side as these values are often quoted for production work where the tool (HSS) might be expected to last for an hour at the maximum depths, feeds and speeds.

Remember, too, that even though a cutter should last some time (more at conservative speeds and feeds) they can be rendered useless in just a few seconds of rubbing, overheating or plain mechanical abuse.

Edited By not done it yet on 11/11/2017 18:12:12

tbh I am enjoying learning

thanks for every ones help