1. Vertical Mill Basics
Instructor:

2. What is Milling?
“Milling is the process of machining flat, curved, or irregular surfaces by feeding the workpiece against a rotating cutter containing a number of cutting edges” - US Army Fundamentals of Machine Tools
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3. Session Goals Safety first!! Red = Safety issue
Orange = Recommended best practices
Mill setup
Parts of the machine
Tools & accessories
Workholding
Milling operations
Clean down
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4. Safety First!! Class Title with Instructor Name. Edit from footer
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5. Safety First!! When using the vertical mill: Wear eye protection
No gloves
No jewelry (rings, watches, bracelets, long necklaces)
No loose clothing or strings
Closed-toed shoes
Short-sleeved shirts and long pants highly recommended
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6. Mill Setup
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7. Understanding the Mill
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8. Parts of the Mill Parts of the Mill Head Motor controls Quill
Vertical (Z-axis) controls
Table
Horizontal (X- & Y-axis controls)
Vise
Workholding
DRO
Powerfeed
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9. Workholding Vise One fixed jaw, one moveable jaw Parallels
Raise workpiece up and help find square
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10. Cutting Tools End Mills 2-flute vs 4-flute Flat vs Ball-end
Center-cutting
Materials (HSS, Carbide, etc)
Drills
Face Mills
Fly cutter
Shell cutter
Boring Heads
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11. Milling Operations Class Title with Instructor Name. Edit from footer
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12. Milling Operations Conventional Milling Face milling Drilling Boring
Tapping
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13. Questions?
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14. To The Metal Shop!! Class Title with Instructor Name. Edit from footer
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15. Reference Material Class Title with Instructor Name. Edit from footer
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16. Workholding
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17. Workholding
Use appropriate parallels to clamp roughly half the height of the workpiece in the vise
Center the workpiece in the vise on the parallels
If workpiece extends from one side of the vise, clamp a piece of equal size on the opposite side of the vise
Partially tighten vise to hold the piece in place
Tap down onto parallels with a mallet until parallels don't move
Fully tighten vise
Check parallels again to make sure the part didn't move during tightening
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18. Mill Setup
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19. Mounting a Cutting Tool
Collets vs Chucks
Use collets for end mills & large drills (or for extra rigidity with a small drill)
Can use chucks for drills smaller than 1/2”
Remove plastic hood from top of head
Insert mill into collet and then insert collet into quill
Only insert mill as far as the bottom of the flutes
Collet & quill are keyed – find correct rotation of collet
Start drawbar by hand
Place spindle wrench on splines of drawbar and tighten top nut with a box wrench – reasonably tight, not Superman-tight
Replace plastic hood
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20. Setting Feeds & Speeds
Consult Feeds & Speeds chart for work material & cutting tool diameter
RPM = (SFM x 12) / (Tool dia. X 3.142)
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21. Setting Feeds & Speeds
Find closest (conservative) RPM and set transmission on mill head
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22. Milling Operations Class Title with Instructor Name. Edit from footer
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23. Milling Operations Conventional Milling Face milling Drilling Boring
Tapping
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24. Conventional Milling Milling along the side of the workpiece
Conventional vs Climb Milling
Move the workpiece into the rotation of the cutter, otherwise it pulls the workpiece through
Can take a very small climb-milling cut as a finishing pass
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25. Face Milling Milling the top face of a workpiece Using end mills
Using Shell Mills & Fly cutters
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26. Drilling Drilling holes Collets vs chucks Use a center drill to start
Countersinking
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27. Boring More precision than drilling Use of boring head
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28. Tapping Adding threads to inside of holes
Use mill to add stability vs hand-tapping
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29. Clean Down
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30. Remove Cutting Tool Use spindle wrench & box wrench to loosen draw bar
Remove tool from collet
May need to tap the drawbar with a wrench to remove tool
Put a rag or something soft down to catch the tool so it doesn't fall & chip
Remove collet from quill
Replace collets/chucks and cutting tools
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31. Clean Down Clean top to bottom Brush chips off vise
Use shop vac to remove chips from vice, table, ways, etc
Vacuum up chips from floor
Check the bottom of your shoes! (metal chips embedded in your shoes will chew up hardwood floors)
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