Help with slitting saw

[evena4]

Hello, I have a mill that I use for my personal hobbies and I have a question regarding the general use and safety of a slitting saw and arbor that I want to try using. I am obviously NOT a machinist but do want to do thing correctly whenever possible.

I am using a 1/8" thick x 2.5" slitter with a 1/2" arbor. Whne viewed from the bottom arbor bolt should the blade be installed with so that the cutter moves in a clockwise direction when in use?
Or, does the direction of the saw blade really matter? I am worried about the safety of this setup as I don't think it would be fun to see the blade come spinning off the arbor and I don't see a key in the setup I've got to prevent a loosening of the bolt.

Secondly, is there a chart of acceptable RPM's for slitting saws in various materials that I should be aware of?

Any help appreciated.
Thanks

[Geof]

If the bolt on the arbor is right hand thread mount the saw to cut clockwise, this means the cutting force tends to tighten the bolt.

For speed use about 1/3 to 1/2 of the sfm that you would use for a milling cutter is the approach I take. For mild steel this woul mean staying below 100 sfm so a 2.5" slitting saw I would probably run no faster than 150 rpm and I would use plenty of coolant.

For feed I also tend to go slowish at around 0.001" per tooth which gives 1.5ipm for ten teeth.

These numbers are conservative I think.

[evena4]

Geof, thank you. I know it seems like common sense when you put it that way but I just didn't want to do something stupid.

This should get me running with a little more confidence in my setup procedures and make for good habits in the future.

Thanks again.

[manoharan]

Hi evena4 Regarding slit saw:
First you should know about up-milling and down -milling.
All milling cutter can give feed up- mii\lling and down-milling except slit saw cutter.
Slit saw must give feed in down-milling only. If you give up-milling slit saw cutter will break because chips not come out easily in up-milling.

[Crevice Reamer]

Hi evena4. Welcome to the Zone!

I think he means climb milling and conventional milling. With a slitting saw, the teeth must always be cutting into the material as it moves past the saw, (conventional milling) not the reverse.

What mill do you have? If you are planning to use a 2 1/2 inch S.S. on an X2, you might want to install a belt drive first if you don't already have one.

CR.

[evena4]

I have a harbor freight gear driven mill. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=42827

It's been pretty good with some heavy roughing bits and I tried using the slitter after Geof answered my post. I think I have a good handle on things now, I hadn't even thought about the blade orientation in terms of climb/conventional milling because I was so concerned with how to run the saw on an arbor that is not keyed and neither are the blades and it is just held on by a little center bolt. I thought it was a recipe for losing a few body parts if used wrong.

Thanks for the reply, there is obviously a lot of "tips and tricks" that the seasoned and professional machinists on this list know about.

-Manny