3" Dia X 8" Long Flat bottom indexable Drill

[within a thou]

I have a job coming up that needs a 3" Dia hole 8" Deep in 6061 with a flat bottom and looking for a tool that can do it. So far the only thing I have found is Allied machines Revolution Drill

 

alliedmachine.com/images/library/file/Literature/RevOD_pgs(2011_rev1).pdf

 

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this tool or any other suggestions for a tool that would be more suitable. I have 122 of these blocks to make which are 19" X 5 X 4 which have 1.5" wide slots thru the 5" thickness and that 3" Hole and also another 5" deep pocket with .75 Rad in the corner so any suggestions on long series tooling for aluminum would be greatly appreciated.

[Joe788]

You got a 50 taper machine with coolant thru? Get a 1.5 Mitsubishi BXD or AXD on an 7 inch long arbor (tool itself is 2 inches long), and helix that bad boy out.

[within a thou]

Joe, I do have spindle thru and cat50 and actually almost strictly use mitsubishi. Getting the chips to blast out of there isn't going to be a problem? I know the BDX4000 can be bought in a 10 OAL with a reduced shank which will help. Just seems aggressive but I get free cutter bodies when I buy inserts and I will be using mitsubishi for all the other parts of this assembly so I think I will give it a go. thanks

[McLaren]

Joe, I do have spindle thru and cat50 and actually almost strictly use mitsubishi. Getting the chips to blast out of there isn't going to be a problem? I know the BDX4000 can be bought in a 10 OAL with a reduced shank which will help. Just seems aggressive but I get free cutter bodies when I buy inserts and I will be using mitsubishi for all the other parts of this assembly so I think I will give it a go. thanks

 

If you need to buy a body anyways you should get in on the AXD4000 promo. The BXD is going to be phased out in a couple years for the AXD anyways. The inserts are priced very close to each other as well.

AXD Promo Flyer.pdf.pdf

[McLaren]

Don't know if you are west coast or not, but wherever you are should hopefully match this deal.

[within a thou]

I am west coast Canada my distributor gives us free bodies when we buy inserts and replaces any damaged bodies for free. for the 1.5 Dia I think I have to buy 40 inserts but with the amount of aluminum coming up going through them wont be a issue. Thanks for the help

[Joe788]

I have a 1.5 inch BXD facemill with a 7 inch OAL on a CAT40 machine and it runs pretty well. Are you running this on a horizontal I hope?

 

The AXD should be a great tool as well, especially for the two inch size. The only reason I went with the BXD for the 1.5 inch, is that the AXD 1.5 is only a two flute, while the BXD is a three flute.

 

Also, I'd go with the facemill style with a long arbor, rather than the long shank endmill style. One less opportunity to generate runout, and even if you've only got a tiny bit of runout at the holder, you're gonna have a bunch more by the time you reach out 8 inches.

[within a thou]

I am actually hoping to run it on one of my VMC's mainly because I have triple the rpm. It will depend on what I can get in tooling because my guage length from my spindle to the table is 31.5" and the part is 19.25 raw and take in account the 8+" tool and holder it can start getting really tight if I cant find a tool that is exactly what I want.

 

I do agree with the arbour over endmill but again it will depend one on availability this job should have been started weeks ago and OAL of the tool. I do have some saving grace though because the 3" circular pocket that finishes 8" deep is actually in the bottom of a 3 X 4.5 square pocket that is 5" deep so I will gain a lot of chip clearance ripping the square out first. The piece is a housing for a pneumatic cylinder so a bit of deflection isnt really going to matter since it is clearance. The fun part will be the 11" long through the 5" thickness that is a open slot that I have to keep within .005 // is going to be the fun part when the part springs. But thats Op2 I dont have to worry about that for a while.

[Mic6]

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[Odin]

I will vouch for the Allied REV drill. those things are awesome. we have a few in our shop and the work great. A couple of us actually went to Allied for 3 days and toured there facilties and got to push their tools to breaking point. We use their Gen 2 and Gensys drills for everything from hardened H13 (44-65 Rc)to Graphite. They are working on smaller version of the REV drill for the small applications also.