3" Face Mill in a Seiki 4VS?

[TZ250]

My local distributor thinks that a Kennametal 3.15" face mill (six inserts) is too much cutter for my mill. I have a Milltronics Centurion 6 on a Seiki 4VS mill. The mill is the size of a Bridgeport Series II and has 3 HP with a NMTB30 taper.

Most of my details are aluminum, but I'll still cut steel from time to time.


Is a 3" face mill too much cutter for my mill?

[JH-Q]

I have 2½" (63mm) face mill and BF20 mill which is way lighter than yours (100kg) and i can take around 0.25mm (0.01") cut with ease and 0.5-0.75mm (0.02"-0.03") cuts with some chatter on aluminium. with steel i haven't tried any heavier cuts than 0.25mm (0.01") i think the vibration is because of
0.8mm tip radius. If you get any chatter problems, try to get smaller tip radius inserts. So, my conclusion is that you could use the face mill without much problems.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

TZ250, According to some of the old "rules of thumb", a 3" cutter should have a width of cut of about 2".(5/8 of cutter width) The edges of the cutter at the OD act like a brake. Another is 1 cubic inch per hp. X machine efficiency. Assuming your machine is "tight" you should be able to use the 3.15" cutter if you limit your width of cut to about 2". In theory, you could take a .025" depth of cut 2" wide at 60 ipm if you get 100% efficiency. You still have to adjust for chip load, surface finish requirements, lead angle of cutter etc.