Are there any super alloy milling fools out here that are aware of a .250 dia.
milling insert? I checked Kennametal. Their smallest is .375. I tried Greenleaf website but the "contact" page is not working properly. (returns an error when I push the "submit" button.)

I am looking for a 1" or 1 1/4" dia. milling cutter (3 flute?) for .250 round ceramic inserts.

I am presently using Kennametal 1/2" round inserts. Application is roughing into a square shoulder. (step) Part materials are Hastalloy X and Nimonic 263. Toolpath is approx. 24 inches long, one inch or less deep. The finish part needs a .125 corner fillet radius. As is is now, I need to semi-finish with carbide inserts to remove the .250 Rad. left behind by the ceramic inserts, before I run the final finish tool with a .125 rad. (The .25 rad. is too much for the finish tool to deal with.)I want to be able to rough with ceramic that has a .125 rad. and eliminate the semi-finish tool.
This smaller dia. would also enable us to increase SFM as well as eliminate a semi-finish tool.
We are currently cutting Nimonic (C-263) at over 3000 SFM. Using the Kennametal 1/2" round insert, in a 2" dia. 3 flute cutter body, the sweet spot seems to be 6050 rpm
66 ipm. .125 doc .500+ radial doc.


I would need an off the shelf item because of time constraints combined with frugal....:mad:.......no...."cheap" management here.
ie. : If ya gotta make it special it probably won't do me any good.

You might try these guys. I have used thier inserts on Nickel alloys with good results. I also keep some around to use if I need to "neck" down a tap or hss mill.

Couldn't find a web site, only the main one, not the one spesific to cutting tools.

N T K Cutting Tools
39205 Country Clb Dr
Farmington Hills, MI 48331
Phone (248) 489-0123, Fax (248) 489-0095

wms thanks.
I've been told there's no such thing. Too small. And after
thinking on it some more, I'm not going to gain as much as I thought (if anything) anyways. First of all I need to correct myself above. The sf will be the same. It's the speeds and feeds that will increase due to smaller cutter dia. And conversly I'll be taking 1/2
doc. and less chip load. So... I'll be moving not quite, twice as fast, but taking twice as many cuts.
IF that is true, THEN I may not even be able to loose the semi-finish tool, because I would have still roughed with the bigger tool agressively and semi-finished with the smaller ceramic.
It was a win, loose, loose deal. :rolleyes:
I'm gonna try somthing else.