I just got the Grizzly X3. I'm pretty new to milling in general was trying to cut a piece of steel.

When either climb milling or conventional milling with a 1/2 inch 2 flute HSS cutter at about 800 rpm, I am getting vibration that I don't like. The electronics cover on the column vibrates and just makes a lot of noise. I'm not sure of my feed rate, but if I go slower or faster it doesn't seem to make much difference. The axis all feel tight and I don't notice backlash but that may still be the issue. I just don't know. The chips are coming off hot and blue, and after checking my tool it feels duller. I don't have any coolant, mostly because I'm concerned that it will have an odor that will stink up my house, and I worry about the effectivness of a enclosure when I am handmilling.

I'm looking for setup advise or what I should be looking for / expecting when milling on steel.

Thanks

Your spindle speed is too fast. Try something closer to 400 rpm using a cutter that big on plain carbon steel.

You should pick up a copy of Machinery's Handbook to use as a reference for speeds and feeds (among other things).

-Nate

fort, Try a 4 flute for steel. It will cut a lot smoother. 2 flute end mills are normally used on softer metals like aluminum.
Steve

Sounds like you have it running a bit fast; ideally you want your chips to be a straw color, or a little lighter. If they are blue, you are running too fast and burning up your tools...

I tried using a 4 flute mill running much slower. It did cut much better. Chips were coming off much cooler. Thanks for the help. I still notice some noise coming from what I assumed to be the drive gears. I assumed it was from loading and unloading the gears as the cutter engages. Is there anyway to avoid that? I assume it would run much quieter if I added a drivebelt to replace the gears. Have any of you tried that? How much difference does that make? Is it very hard to do?

just my thoughts, how deep are you cutting?

and on the coolant, i'm using koolmist77 mixed at double the suggested mix rate, (if the instructions said 4oz for a gallon of water i put 8) and i cant detect any odor in my cnc room, its a 8x10 room in my shop, not air tight, but i would smell anything foul... so far i'm ver impressed with it, cuts well, cleans up easy, and i dont have any rust on my machine. ofcourse i'm only working in alum right now...but there is some steel in my future...

One more thing, climb milling and acme screws don't get along well... I would recommend going with conventional. CNC's do well climb milling because of the ballscrews, but manual machine usually "jump" and that can scrap a part in no time. Good luck!

Sean

I agree with Trapper, conventional milling and a rpm betwen 550 to 650 is fine, 4 flute(carbide preferred) for steel. Coolant unless you plan to make serious money with your mill, you can use wd40 for coolant or just buy a gallon of some coolant and a squirt bottle. One of the biggest problems I see on this site is newcomers(including myself) taking to big of a cut, like these little mills can hang with the Bridgeports. Good luck and enjoy.....