Making a Large Diameter R8 Fly Cutter for a Bridgeport Milling Machine.

Making a large diameter R8 Fly Cutter for my Birdgeport Milling Machine has been on the too do list for a while now. It has however just jumped to the top of the list. I might need a large diameter fly cutter to re skim a cylinder head in coming weeks. The only machine have capable of doing this is a Bridgeport milling machine. The Bridgeport mill uses an R8 Spindle so I integrated that into the fly cutter to prevent any flexibility in the tool holder as this would lead to poor surface finishes. A fly cutter is very useful as it allows the machine operator to make a single pass over a large part cutting the entire surface. The fly cutter therefore tents to provide a better surface finish than, for example a face mill which might have to do multiple passes due to it's smaller diameter. The downside of the fly cutter is that it is much slower and only small cuts can be taken.
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Cheers,
Rob
Handmade Extreme -
Disclaimer: This video is meant for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is in no way meant to be a set of instructions and therefore no attempt should be made by any party to recreate what has been seen in this video. Any attempt to do so is done completely at your own risk.

[@karlthompson1961]

Nice work Mr. 👍🏻

[@Handmadeextreme]

Thanks 👍

[@joepie221]

I was going to say I am not a fan of 2 piece flycutters, then you welded it. Good job. Since you wont always run it slow, you may wish to consider a large chamfer or relief cut on the thicker side of the flycutter head. The difference in mass caused by the bottom angle cut, will give you vibration at high speed and show up in your finish.

[@Handmadeextreme]

Hi Joe, Thought I recognised the name.. watched your knurling video a few weeks back, very informative. thanks. 👍 Yeah all that unbalanced mass spinning round doesn't sit well with me either. I would have preferred to make it from a single piece but didn't have any material suitable. I was doing some cutting with it this week and your right at higher RPM's it would benefit from a balancing cut. Great to have you here and thanks for the support. 👍

[@hduff]

I enjoy your sense of humor, umm . . . humour.

[@Handmadeextreme]

Thank you, I'm glad you are enjoying the videos. 👍

[@joshuagosling3341]

Great video! Super old school making your own cutting tools! Don’t see this much anymore! Can’t wait for the next videos!

[@Handmadeextreme]

Cheers Josh, glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the support.

[@Robosini88]

Great job

[@TheAussiePirate]

Really can’t wait to see what’s next!

[@Handmadeextreme]

Thanks very much, I'm glad you are enjoying the videos.

[@catherineharris4746]

Fkng beautiful!👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@MaturePatriot]

Very nice fly cutter.

[@Handmadeextreme]

Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it.

[@hairyfro]

You could level a dance floor with that thing.

[@Handmadeextreme]

😂 haha, thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@luckymazibuko2135]

Nice

[@woozhi9218]

So rare to see people milling at such low spindle speed just as sastifiying as watching a shaper and makes me worry less about things crashing

[@laurm0310]

So cool that you make your own tools. A lot of knowledge went into this one. Keep it up!

[@Handmadeextreme]

Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the support. 👍

[@joell439]

well done - 👍😎👍

[@Handmadeextreme]

Cheers, glad you enjoyed it.

[@retromechanicalengineer]

Great project, I enjoyed watching this. I'll need to make one at some point for motorbike heads. Dean in Oxfordshire.

[@Handmadeextreme]

Hi Dean, great to hear from you again. I think it will come in handy for all sorts of jobs now. I should have made one years ago. Thanks for the support, glad you enjoyed it.

[@frankherring6253]

Just something to think about. I worked in an engine reconditioning center, the surface grinder for the cylinder heads was converted from stones to indexable bits. The first few heads were cut to smooth and would not hold a gasket. The feed rate had to be adjusted to leave a rougher surface. Mind you they were for large Diesel engines so more compression involved.

[@Rubbernecker]

Damn nice!!!

[@Handmadeextreme]

Cheers.

[@sinfulf4i]

a tip for surfacing cylinder head or engine blocks make sure the head is trammed front and back but tilt it just a half a degree toward the leading side of the cutter the direction you intend to travel that way the trailing edge as the tool passes over the surface doesn't rub. yes in theory if it perfectly true and trammed it wont but there theory and real world practices.

[@Handmadeextreme]

Absolutely. great comment. thanks for the advice and support. 👍

[@alockworkorange7296]

Just found ur chamnel and really enjoyed. Keep up the good work id love to see u skim a cylinder head with that after u tram in the mill. Tho it dosent look like its draging on the back so it cant be to bad

[@Handmadeextreme]

Great to have you here, I hope you stick around for some more. I'm planning to lift the cylinder head this week to see if it needs doing. It would be nice if it doesn't to be honest but if it does then at least I can now. Thanks for the support and welcome to the channel. 👍

[@rickpalechuk4411]

Nice job on the cutter. Just subbed. You sound like Geoffery Croker's cousin. :) Cheers

[@Handmadeextreme]

Haha,thanks. I'v just had to go and find out who that is. Guy seems to be into his Landrovers. Glad you enjoyed the video and welcome to the channel, great to have you here. 👍

[@rickpalechuk4411]

@@Handmadeextreme His drill press series was excellent also.

[@rushymoto]

I am in the process of making a fly cutter for my Bridgeport. I purchased a blank end arbour on R8 and I have ordered a 200mm length of 50mm sq bar. I will fit the arbour and mill a slot in the bottom to accept 16mm shank lathe tools that I use. I have never really been happy with skimming cylinder heads on anything other than purpose built engine shop machines but to be sure on my bridgeport I have a 42 inch table and I can get 70cm travel so I should be able to skim a head as long as the length + 2X the radius of the tool can be accommodated in the travel. Yes I have seen heads skimmed by otherwise non machinists in engine shops where the tool was not run all the way off the head at the end of the cut.

[@TomMakeHere]

Good work! When I used to run a flycutter I changed my tool out for carbide, it let me run at higher speeds and feeds. But you might need to grind the carbide (use a respirator if you plan on doing this, carbide dust is nasty)

[@Handmadeextreme]

Great tip, ill bare that in mind, thanks. Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the support.

[@MrCrankyface]

@@Handmadeextreme I would really recommend a SDJCR12 holder and a DCMT070204 insert. I made a fly cutter using that, similar design as yours, and it works great. It cuts a diameter of 150mm and you can run quite high feed and speeds. Since the slot size is the same, you could use both HSS and insert holders for special grinds, radiuses etc. I found that 1088rpm and 150-200mm/min gave a good finish on steel.

[@somebodyelse6673]

@@MrCrankyface - No issues with the constant interrupted cut using carbide?

[@MrCrankyface]

@@somebodyelse6673 None at all so far.

[@lmsaltest]

Did you see the huge eccentricity in the center hole on the head when you were drilling? You should have bored it out, but luckily you fixed eccentricity at the end, in the spindle.

[@Handmadeextreme]

Kinda, I new there would be a load of run out on the head as I didn't a piece of material long enough to be able to turn the OD in the lathe to get the ID and OD concentric and the back plate on my 3 jaw chuck has a fair bit of run out in it.. really aught to fix that. I've been wanting to try that trick of cutting the OD in the mill for a while so thought this would be a good opportunity. Thankfully it turned out really well. Well spotted by the way 👍👍 Thanks for watching.

[@somebodyelse6673]

@@Handmadeextreme - One hardly ever sees mill turning on a manual mill. A little more common on a CNC mill, but still sneaky!

[@wiggysworld]

@10:00 what are these clamps called and where do i get some ?

[@Handmadeextreme]

Not sure what the exact name of those one are but the concept is called a two piece machine vice. Should be able to find them online fairly easily

[@benjaminsorenson3183]

How much to make me one? Considering buying a local machine for cheap to mill aluminum subaru cylinder heads.

[@Handmadeextreme]

Would be cheaper to buy one for sure. If you want to start a business skimming heads there are machines made specifically for it. Hope that helps. Thanks for the support.

[@britishreaction54]

Really enjoyed that. I take it this is tooling up for Project Pippa? By the way, my freezer is in my workshop. For just such an eventuality. Have you seen a channel called Usher Engineering? A girl called Beth and her Father run a workshop dealing with specialist motorsport and vintage car engineering. They have a video about skimming a head. They have made the mother of all fly cutters. The tool holder is like an enormous fly wheel.

[@Handmadeextreme]

Glad you enjoyed it. You are correct about why i'v made it. I haven't actually got the head off yet to check if it's flat but thought id'e make the cutter anyway then I have it just in case. No I haven't seen it. I'll take a look thanks.

[@britishreaction54]

@@Handmadeextreme It's a great channel and they are UK based, do a lot of interesting stuff. Beth is a fantastic machinist and tig welder. It's annoying seeing someone so young with so much talent! Again great video. Look forward to your next offering. I'm going into my workshop now because at long last I'm home.

[@qcnck2776]

Very nicely done. BTW, why such a large radius on the tool nose?

[@Handmadeextreme]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. I find that it gives a better surface finish than a sharp point. It also makes for a much stronger / longer lasting tool in my experience. The only time I grind tools to a point is if they actually need one, say for turning up to a shoulder on the lathe. Thanks for the support. 👍

[@unclezygi8220]

👍

[@Handmadeextreme]

Thank you.

[@trumanhw]

A little faster than This Old Tony's project ... (You should check his channel out). He doesn't have the industrial equipment that you do, but it's still a super entertaining (and endearing) channel. :)

[@Handmadeextreme]

I very much enjoy This Old Tony, his comedy timing is on point.