Face milling is the process of machining a flat surface on a work piece. A cutter is mounted to a Face Mill (Shell Mill) holder which consists of an arbor, 2 drive keys and a retaining bolt.
Carbide inserts are secured to the cutter with screws. A face mill with positive axial rake reduces cutting forces and vibration. The milling head should be positioned close to the work piece to minimize quill extension and maximize rigidity.
Locking the Gibs in the Y and Z axis will further improve rigidity. Steel and brass materials can be cut dry while aluminum, stainless steel and titanium should be cut with an appropriate lubricant or coolant.
The FM45 Indexible Face Mill shown here is manufactured by Glacern Machine Tools, and uses square inserts tilted at 45 degrees. Each insert has 4 cutting edges and can be rotated 90 degrees to expose a fresh cutting edge.
WD40 serves as an excellent lubricant for cutting aluminum on a conventional machine, preventing soft aluminum chips from welding to the cutting edges. However, proper ventilation is required due to the smoke it creates. Aluminum is being faced without lubrication in this demonstration but coolant is recommended in a production environment.
A finishing pass is performed with the material being fed at the same rate but with the cutter spinning at a higher speed at a shallower depth of cut. Rectangular inserts such as those used on this FM90 Face Mill have 2 cutting edges instead of 4 but are capable of milling shoulders and slots.
