Long story short I found a end mill that can polish Acrylic but the price tag was a whopping $1,700… Yea for one end mill.
So I found only 1 Chinese alternative which has the same specs and claims to do the same thing for $100. But, during my moving to a new location I didn’t think it through to realize the shank size was 9mm.
I contacted the company to exchange it for a smaller shank size but they said the cutting length would be significantly shorter, yatta yatta yatta.
Is there anything I can do Spindle wise to make this 9mm end mill work or alternatively, is there such a thing as taking this end mill I have and getting it shaved down at a shop?
You could find a tool and cutter grinder in your area that would have the equipment needed to grind down the shank to fit a 1/4" collet. Check your local machine shops also. One of them might have the tooling needed to do the job. Hope this helps.
Thanks, that is the general consensus I am getting and more than likely the easiest way to go about this. I hope this tool is worth the effort. I make acrylic reservoirs for custom water cooled computers and the most arduous part of the fabrication is the sanding process to get all sides, and insides polished to make it appear crystal clear and clean.
I’m not sure I understand the utility of the thing, but that’s beside the point… maybe some explainers of your products on your site would help.
To help you make the thing, though:
Have you considered flame-polishing the acrylic? It takes practice, but it’s a great way to get a really smooth surface appearance with low effort. It’s how they finish the edges on acrylic signs and plates, and it’s the edge you get when you laser-cut acrylic. It’s not truly flat, but it looks clean & clear and aesthetically pleasing, which seems more your goal than perfect flatness.
You definitely want to ensure your machine is square and tuned, because run-out and chatter will really mess up your finish (which means you’ll be sanding). Even with a fancy tool, you can’t get a high-quality finish without the machine being dead-on square and true. I have a piece of 1/8" aluminum wire with two ~90° bends in it that’s about 6" long in the middle section, which I put the collet and then turn by hand to see if in turning in a full circle it drags or lifts off anywhere. It should be leveled out so it just barely hovers over the surface of my machine bed, which tells me that my Z-axis is properly perpendicular to the base. This process is called ‘Tramming’ your machine, if you want to look up how to do it in more depth.
Depending on your other tooling for roughing and finishing passes, you could probably get pretty darn close to your desired look by using clean & sharp low-helix tools for finishing, a little soy-based cutting fluid, and running smaller stepovers/higher spindle speeds on the finishing passes, but be careful not to melt & weld the plastic!
I have to say I think your tramming method is awesome. I will definitely try that out. One thing I have not tried yet which is silly in hindsight is having a step over. I need to try that with possibly a single flute open straight cutter for plastics as a finishing bit.
I tried flame polishing all of one time and didn’t do it well but I was using butane and I think the recommended gas is oxygen. I need to tray that out now that I have a proper garage workshop as the more I think about it the more I think that will be the easiest method. I am just not sure about how well that will work on the inside as the material in the main window is only 1/8" thick. Either way I still have a ton to learn but thank you, this information is solid and I am definitely going to take some time to look into these methods!
