Endmills for cutting splines

[laka]

Does anyone know a place that sells endmills for cutting splines? Seems to me I've seen somewhere but I cant recal.

The drawing calls for:

16/32DP
30 Deg PA
1.750 Major Dia
1.589 Minor Dia
27 Teeth

Looks like an involute style.

I need and endmill since I am making this part on a VMC, also it is very close to a shoulder.

Thanks for any info

[kingfisher]

Could you put a hob on arbor and run this? Not aware of a standard endmill to do this? Heck...... that's why I visit this site though, I always keep learning! I am sure you could find some kind of a hob with those demensions required and run it off an arbor in a e/m holder and side machine it.

[vlmarshall]

Using an endmill and cutting right on your centerline, you won't get a radiused minor diameter. I suppose you could index the shaft so each spline flute is vertical, and side mill them, and at least get a faceted minor diameter.

[HuFlungDung]

Is this a production situation or a one off?

I've never seen any commercial offering of endmills that will do this. I can well imagine the extreme delicacy of the tip of such an endmill, resulting in a short useful life for the tool.

I would side mill it. For a single job, grind up a flycutter and make a little arbor to hold it in a regular endmill holder. However, grinding the tool requires a sample spline to test the tool shape. If you have a male spline sample, you can cast an inverse off of it with a bit of plaster of Paris, then you've got a gauge to grind and fit the tool to.

For production, you could likely get a tool grinding shop to custom make the tool, using something like a woodruff cutter as a basis to begin from. A small woodruff cutter might get you within 3/8" of a shoulder. If you must get closer to the shoulder than that, you'd almost be looking at some sort of EDM procedure.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

You can cut on the side of the part with a form milling side mill or end mill.

www.tmfmllc.com www.ashgear.com Ash might rent one if it's a short run or one-off.

Dick Z

[laka]

I ended up getting one custom ground for me. It is for a one-off job. I had to go with an endmill since the splines stop very close to a chamfer. Minor diameter is not a big deal, they just need it to fit nicely in the female socket. Thanks for he help