Milling machine - end mill and face mill bits wear and tear?

[ELL]

So I am considering buying an industrial milling machine, vertical.
How long do the bits last? I'm concerned it will cost me a lot of money in consumables - the bits
I have no experience of these machines, which is why I am ignorant of them.
I will be mostly milling highcarbon steel.
Taking 10mm off the top of 12 inch lengths of railway track.
Cheers.

 

[Pete.]

That work will cost you a lot in consumables whichever way you do it.

 

[ELL]

That work will cost you a lot in consumables whichever way you do it.

I don't need a 100% flat perfect finish. I think just cutting with a big power hacksaw or big bandsaw may be the cheapest way.

 

[northwest]

I don't need a 100% flat perfect finish. I think just cutting with a big power hacksaw or big bandsaw may be the cheapest way.

If you manage with a hacksaw i would be surprised. A rail track will finish a hacksaw blade in short order. You need some decent carbide tooling and it needn't cost fortunes if you buy it right.
I would buy the machine in any event as you can do far more with one than remove material from railway track.

 

[MetalMonkey]

If you have no experience in running a mill, then expect to go through a lot of bits while learning.
It’s just part of gaining experience, you are going to trash bits.

 

[Agroshield]

A rail track will finish a hacksaw blade in short order.

My interpretation of his post is he wants to cut as shown below with a red line:




A saw might be an economic way to do this and then a skim (less than 1mm) on a mill.

For the milling, the beefier the machine, the lower the per part consumable cost would be - the same cut would wear out inserts faster on a Bridgeport than on a honkin' great 50 taper machine.

 

[Kram]

There are plenty of cheap carbide inserts and facemills that, perhaps not much good, would do what your asking. A bigger machine would let you run more durable inserts.

 

[Rrobson]

Depends on lots of things here.
How rigid is the machine?
How rigid is it mounted?
Shape of the inserts?
Grade of the inserts?
Depth of cut?
Speeds and feeds?
Coolant?

Get any of these wrong and they’ll last seconds. Get them all right and inserts will last many hours.
And what’s your definition of industrial? My definition would cut that in one pass, your definition may require several passes…

 

[dave h 2]

Judging by the OP's second post this is what he has in mind

 

[northwest]

My interpretation of his post is he wants to cut as shown below with a red line:

View attachment 480230


A saw might be an economic way to do this and then a skim (less than 1mm) on a mill.

For the milling, the beefier the machine, the lower the per part consumable cost would be - the same cut would wear out inserts faster on a Bridgeport than on a honkin' great 50 taper machine.

Yes I had figured that, the top part is absolutely the hardest part and the bit that will trash hacksaw blades, I had thought as to how he was going to hold the material to be cut. I have a little bit of experience and have found the easiest and probably cheapest way is using cutoff disks. Hot axe might be good too.

 

[Agroshield]

Yes I had figured that, the top part is absolutely the hardest part and the bit that will trash hacksaw blades...

On a rail, is it true to say that the top and one side, where the wheel flange runs, would have the worst work hardening?

In your experience, how deep (up and down) is the hardened part and is the non-flange side (outside of the rail) noticably different to the inside?

Thanks.

 

[Morrisman]

If the machine has enough grunt for it one of these will skim that top section off in no time. We used to mill JCB track plates with this type of cutter, but 10” diameter, hundreds of them, taking the cast steel down about 6-8mm of material off, in one pass, to square up the mounting faces.