I've got one of these Banggod cutters but haven't used it in anger yet after having read everyone else's experiences.

The insert height originally varied by 16 thou which I managed to decrease to about 8 by swapping/changing the inserts. I have a good quality 3mt arbor which fits my Mitsubishi face mill snugly but is a 'loose' fit on the Banggood job like Jason found.

When I bought it I also got some inserts for aluminium, these are razor sharp as the now dried blood on them testifies and also the height difference is now down to 1 1/2 thou. I'm tempted to try these on steel and see what happens (I use the aluminium turning inserts on mild steel and they work a treat).

If i can find my camera battery charger I'll post a pic later.

Paul

OK Gents,

Very un scientific test on a piece of rusty black bar.

Left hand side was the inserts for aluminium, 10 thou depth of cut at 1000 rpm, hand fed. Any more than 10 thou and the vibration was awful and you could tell it was cutting unevenly by the sound. What I wasn't expectiong was the right hand side, same speed feed and depth but with inserts for steel. The faster you fed it the better it seemed to like it, even at a 40 thou depth of cut. It sounded fine but I know that the cutting teeth vary in height.(BTW my mill is a RF30)

The steel inserts were APMT1604PDER-M2. I didn't get the inserts with the facemill but I noticed that there seem to be two flavours available, both in grade VP15-TF. One is -M2 and the other -H2. From what I can find the H2 is for medium to heavy cutting and the M2 is for medium to light, they certainly seem to have a sharpish edge to them.

I am not clear on what inserts Richard was using. If it is a TP** insert there will be very little rake on the cutting face and will require extra force to get the inserts to cut. The APMT inserts pictured appear to have a rounded cutting edge appropriate for higher horsepower rigid machines. The APMT insert also has a dimensional tolerance of +-.005". The inserts with that large a variation can not be expected to equally share the cutting load. APKT inserts have a tolerance of +-.0005" if I remember correctly. That would be a much better choice. For low horsepower machines the APKT inserts intended for aluminum work quite well in steel and the cutting forces are reduced. I am using BG APKT inserts for aluminum in my 1 1/2" face mill and am extremely pleased with the results. My 4" face mill uses SEHT inserts. Lots of top rake. I highly recommend face mills using hat insert.

I have to confess I have no idea what inserts came with my cutter apart from the fact they were AMPT1604's. The insert box does not give any further indication (pot luck I got good ones, I think – it is typical of many of the Chinese inserts). Getting the right designation means it's possible to get the right ones again in the future – though not necessarily direct from China.

Regards,

Richard.

I've got one of those Chinese cutters, I mounted it on MT2 shank (blank end arbor turned to fit) and run it on my Centec. At 1000 rpm, 0.030" depth of cut and 0.002" tooth load it produces a mirror finish on steel and doesn't seem to cause the machine any distress. The backs of the inserts don't seem to sit down flat, but it works, so who cares?

I got my genuine Korloy (Korean) 50mm face mill from a UK shop on ebay IIRC – unused but under half price. Then I got a couple of packs of APMT1604 coated (for steel) and APGT1604 (uncoated for loominum) inserts also from ebay. I went for Mitsubishi branded parts and as far as I can tell that's what they are.

Proper inserts must be used by the billion out there, given the range and volume of stuff they churn out. so it's hardly surprising that some make their way onto the market. I stick with Korloy, Mitsubishi, Taegutec etc and if you shop around they cost around £2 per insert inc P&P. Aliexpress is also a good source for inserts, both turning and milling. Good prices and generally pukka parts.

Murray

Just how it should be.

Also matches the colour of the language if a chip goes down your shirt front.

The theory is that most of the energy supplied by the motor goes into deformation of the chips so even with 500W (one electric fire bar) the chips ought to get pretty hot.

Andrew

Nice, viscious-looking inserts, the uncoated ones. But they don't look as I'd expect from an ISO-compatible APKT insert – also interested to know where you got them. That geometry has the 90 degree corner and a "wiper" edge to give a flat (axial) surface when used to face off.

This is what Korloy APKT160404PDFR MA-H01 look like from Cutwel. The H-01 suffix denotes Korloy's non-ferrous grade. Cutwel sells them for £8.40 inc vat (each) and even with 30% off that is pretty expensive. As mentioned, I get mine from ebay, Aliexpress etc.

Incidentally, these inserts are capable of almost 16mm of axial DOC, so they can be used for roughing and finishing external vertical faces. Arguably, you are losing much of the insert's capability if you only make shallow facing passes with them. You can get smaller holders that take one or two of these inserts – down to under 10mm, if you use the smaller APKT11 insert. Then they become usable for slotting and pocketing. Same problem though – very intermittent, noisy cutting.

Murray

Here's a single insert, 16mm dia cutter doing its thing in loominum. It's actually a Mitsubishi BAP300-series holder but the insert is very similar to the APKT style. Because it has only one tooth, the feed rate and MRR is fairly low, despite running at 6000rpm. I've gone over to solid carbide cutters now, as you can shift a lot more swarf in the same time. Perhaps this kind of cutter is best for production volumes, where you actually wear out cutters over a relatively short period of time and the costs add up. Forgive the silly title but this was the first ever metal I cut on the CNC machine.

Edited By Muzzer on 09/05/2018 22:27:03

Jason,

Those ones in the picture from APT are identical to the ones I have for aluminium.

Paul

Just heard back from Cutwel and it seems the image on the website is wrong, they will change it to the correct image which from Murray's link is the MA but the photo shows probably the MA2 or MA3.

As Muzzer says it is the letters after the basic shape, size and corner radius that can make all the difference and often not shown from the cheaper suppliers and seldom mentioned when someone says a certain tip works for them. Not helped by the fact these letters and numbers are manufacturer specific rather than standard across the lot. On our hobby machines the finer differences will not really come into it but a "sharp" cutter can make all the difference as these few videos have hopefully shown, bit like using a**GT insert on a light weight lathe that would otherwise not take well to the use of carbide.

Infact there is a whole world of everything out there, I got a 2" high pile of cataloges with the order and that was just measuring, milling and machine accessories.

if its rocking. Is it rocking on the face you have cut beacuse steps of differant hieght in the cut face. Sometimes the mill may not be inserted and secured properly and may be dropping lock the vertical hieght on each pass if you have the option. check your fixing of the part your milling. Its easy to get swarf under it and or bolting is not holding t down flush with the mill bed. Have only used flueted mills not inserts and generlly if its a large area a bigger mill will git better than small one as it will not require so many steps. Finally how much are you cutting on each pass .

M.

Martin, try reading the rest of the post, the mill easily coped when I used different inserts. Also read the title of the thread, it's a 50mm face cutter not a 1" bit

Also half of which cut the 0.1mm DOC or the 1.0mm DOC?

Edited By JasonB on 14/05/2018 07:30:25