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Small milling cutters

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sparky961:
Everyone eventually accrues a collection of "rules of thumb". Some lead to argument but that doesn't matter if it works for you.

One that I picked up years ago was 0.500" = 500 RPM. This is a good starting point for milling and drilling mild steel with HSS.  Since RPM to diameter is linear you can easily do the math in your head for others. Double the diameter, half the speed. Half the diameter, twice the speed... etc. You quickly learn to look and listen and watch and adjust accordingly. Oh, and for carbide I typically double or triple the RPM.

Running slower will, for the most part, take longer and make the cutter last longer. Tool books will usually give production speeds that get the job done quickly at the cost of quickly wearing tooling.

On a manual machine I mill and drill stainless much slower than suggested. I get excellent results.

Best way to learn is to get some sharp HSS cutters tharent too expensive. Start with book values and adjust both ways to see what happens.

chipenter:
I should also add that I use a rubber puffer for small cutters , cutting it's own chips will knock the edge off if not cleared .

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