After spending a decent amount of time searching for one and not being successfull, I thought I would just ask here: Does anyone know of a "Micro’ Face mill that would fit in the Nomad 883? Or am I better off just using a standard end mill?
I just bought some from micromark.com
Item 84686:
FLY CUTTER 1/4" SHANK
$10/each
I have not received them yet, nor have I received my Nomad, but the shaft is 1/4" so should fit an ER11 with a 1/4" collet.
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edit: I notice mezurashii you asked about aluminum before… if you are wanting to face mill aluminum I would be skeptical that this fly cutter would work; fly cutters put a lot of unbalanced stress on a spindle as it is, and for this Nomad it may be too much for it to handle without causing so much chatter and vibration that you would defeat the purpose of a face mill - which is to get a mirror smooth surface.
Having said that, I’d only basing this on my knowledge of larger mills (Tormach) - but I think trying to face mill aluminum would not be good. The other challenge you have with aluminum is you really can’t just back off the depth of cut because if you aren’t taking off “chips”, you just end up “smearing” the aluminum rather than cutting, so you have to at least let the mill do it’s job of cutting - so you would end up using a really small endmill and then you may find it takes a very very long time to mill anything useful.
Anyway, just my 2 cents. I can comment more when my Nomad arrives and I can actually try this. I bought these mini-super fly face mills for wax and plastics - I don’t know if I would even want to take the chance on aluminum with them and risk damaging the Nomad.
Ok thanks for the input. I would only be using it to smooth of mold lines from casted aluminum parts, I would only want to take 5-10thou off of the top of the slides. Would that still be to much for the Nomad?
I’d have to defer to someone else who has already received theirs; hard to say and I guess it depends on what other metals are in your cast aluminum? Pure cast aluminum I think is quite soft (relatively), but depends on what these casts are? Sorry, that’s about all I can offer without actually trying it.
Where are your cast parts coming from? DIY casting, or from a fab shop?
They are coming from a manufactured slide for an airsoft pistol. I unfortunately do not know what exactly is in the cast aluminum though. I only know that it is aluminum.
I just received the little tiny fly cutters from micromark.com; they are very cute. As an aside, I was not familiar with this company until they sent me a catalog with my order. WOW; if you are into any kind of “small” milling work, jewelry, models, that sort of thing, these guys have a crazy selection of little tiny equipment. Like a “miniature” table saw, rotary sanders, little bandsaws… like if Barbie opened a machine shop 
Cool stuff.
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Hi
Have you had a chance to try this cute little fly cutter yet?
I’m in batch 4 and I am just itching to do something, I figure buying a bit of tooling will keep the twitchies under control for a little while.
I am in batch 4 also, and I think maybe towards the end of batch 4… so unfortunately no, I’ve not had a chance to try it. In the meantime I was thinking about the grommet/adapter that will be required for the tool sensor since the Nomad sort of expects the “business” end of the cutting tool to be pretty much centered under the spindle… which is not the case with a fly cutter… the blade is offset… so, step 1 is to receive Nomad… step 2 is to use Nomad to mill a tool sense adapter, then step 3 is to test the little tiny fly cutter 
by the way, I know what you mean about keeping the “twitchies” under control. I’ve been keeping them at bay by TIG welding and power coating 2 custom aluminium shelves for my CPU, monitor and keyboard to free up desk space for Mr. Nomad when it arrives.
I just received my Nomad and have now had a chance to try these little facing mills (fly cutter).
I ran at 5000 rpm with a very aggressive depth of cut (2.5mm) at 800mm/min and they face machineable wax very nicely, HOWEVER, this was a test to push the limits and in practice a 0.5 mm depth of cut would be much better.
I’ll try some renshape as I’d think it would work well also, but I am very skeptical of wood with a big grain, and I’d be afraid to even consider with any metals… much better to stick with smaller diameter endmills IMO.
For the wax however, it was a champ with no straining or chatter, even at the overly aggressive feedrate and depth.
That’s fantastic to hear! How did you end up resolving the tool length check?
-Jonathan
I cheated… just installed the cutter and allowed a standard tool-length check operation, and observed about 1mm of the cutter was below the top of the tool length sensor… and so “faked” a Z zero of my material 1mm higher than it actually was.
Once I receive my vice then I’ll machine a proper adapter for the tool length sensor, but having just received my Nomad on Friday… well, it’s a lot like Christmas this weekend
-Warren
Here is a shot of the glass-like quality on wax… at 1/2 inch per pass it certainly is a lot faster than using a small endmill for facing.
-Warren
http://s23.postimg.org/xscbnt77f/Micro_Fly_Cutter_Facing.jpg
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Well I know what I"ll be picking up sometime soon…