Face Mill For Mini Mill

This topic has 11 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 24 October 2025 at 12:01 by Vic.

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23 October 2025 at 12:29 #821317
Andy Brocklehurst
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@andybrocklehurst85292
I’ve got about a dozen pieces of mild steel that I need to clean up and remove about 1.5mm from, they measure about 125mm x 125mm.

I don’t fancy spending forever doing it with an end mill so I was wondering if a face mill would do the job on my Sieg Sx2.7 mini mill?
Ive never used a face mill, would my machine be up to the job and what size FM would be suitable?

Thanks
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23 October 2025 at 13:03 #821326
JasonB
Moderator
@jasonb
If you click the “workshop” heading on the light blue bar along the top of the page and read these two articles of mine you can see how a SX2.7 handles a facemill. I suggest you go with the inserts shown in the second part.

50mm 5 insert head would be a reasonable choice though I have used upto 80mm. Cut depth of 0.5mm per pass and make 4 passes of just over 40mm width to cover the work.
23 October 2025 at 17:45 #821355
Andy Brocklehurst
Participant
@andybrocklehurst85292
On 23 October 2025 at 13:03 JasonB Said:

If you click the “workshop” heading on the light blue bar along the top of the page and read these two articles of mine you can see how a SX2.7 handles a facemill. I suggest you go with the inserts shown in the second part.

50mm 5 insert head would be a reasonable choice though I have used upto 80mm. Cut depth of 0.5mm per pass and make 4 passes of just over 40mm width to cover the work.

Thanks Jason, that’s a real help.
23 October 2025 at 21:05 #821370
Vic
Participant
@vic
An alternative is a Fly Cutter. I use one a lot for cleaning up bigger pieces of material.

I don’t have the one in the video, just an example of a fly cutter in action.

https://youtu.be/0vSeUOJBU8o?si=Ybm9fQW21ey5e4Iy
24 October 2025 at 01:26 #821400
Vic
Participant
@vic
Check out this video as well.

https://youtu.be/QVZK7-vZRSw?si=odQt3UV9QVqJiA_k
24 October 2025 at 06:30 #821402
not done it yet
Participant
@notdoneityet
Fly cutting is a good way to check the tram of the mill, too. A good, wide ‘flat’ surface to check that it is actually as flat as you hoped.🙂
24 October 2025 at 07:11 #821409
JasonB
Moderator
@jasonb
I don’t fancy spending forever doing it

The downside of a flycutter is that being a single point tool you can’t feed it so quickly and if using an HSS bit also need to run slowly which further increases the machining time. With a Carbide insert milling cutter you can improve on the latter but still going to take 5 times as long. I also used to use a flycutter quite a lot but I’ve since seen the light.

Compare a flycutter on the same SX2.7 with HSS. Overspeeding the HSS in the first half then running at a reduced speed in the second half, not as big a depth of cut either. Details in description

And more material being removed in shorter time with the insert facemill. Details in captions

The other factor which I explain in those articles is that the modern benchtop mill with it’s electronic variable speed does not have the guts of an old rigid belt or geared machine so simply can’t swing the type of cutter shown in Vics first video without stalling or to you avoid stalling you barely scratch the surface.

Even in the second video the guy has a substantial mill and what he says at the end regarding speed and DOC even when using a carbide cutter is worth noting

If your pieces of steel do have mill scale on them like the piece above then you can reduce tool wear by pickling the material in brick cleaning acid for 30mins which will remove the scale.
24 October 2025 at 08:07 #821416
DC31k
Participant
@dc31k
On 24 October 2025 at 07:11 JasonB Said:

The other factor which I explain in those articles

Perhaps it would be useful to add a postscript to the articles now that the source of the facemill shown no longer exists.
24 October 2025 at 09:30 #821426
Dave S
Participant
@daves59043
I believe Jenny at JB has the stock of ex Arc face mills.

And Ketan didn’t have a monopoly on small insert mills, I also have them from APT and Cutwell

Dave
24 October 2025 at 09:44 #821435
JasonB
Moderator
@jasonb
And I expect many looking at the article will go and buy a cheap direct from china option which was a factor in the demise of ARC. I have previously written about those and how they can be made to work better and also using inserts from the likes of APT helped but the 50mm banggood one I tried was not upto ARCs usual standard.
24 October 2025 at 11:55 #821449
Vic
Participant
@vic
This is the type of insert I use in my Flycutter. I have types for both Steel and Aluminium Alloy. The finish I get is very good, far better than an end mill. I’ve faced material up to nearly 100mm wide with it. I’ve also used the polished tip to flatten small pieces of wood with it. The inserts are cheap and you can rotate them several times to get a fresh cutting edge.

https://youtu.be/W-cAFFIpag0?si=VTYQoqGObPNduqBl

My Flycutter body is like this one. I just made a simple holder for the carbide inserts.

Flycutter 3 Morse Taper With Toolbit
24 October 2025 at 12:01 #821452
Vic
Participant
@vic
On 24 October 2025 at 07:11 JasonB Said:

The downside of a flycutter is that being a single point tool you can’t feed it so quickly and if using an HSS bit also need to run slowly which further increases the machining time.

This is why I use Carbide Inserts in my Flycutter. I can make much deeper cuts at higher speed than using HSS.
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