Hey everyone, i’m looking to mill some G10 parts and was wondering what end mills would be best for this material? Thanks!
I remember a long time back seeing some machinists at work use carbide burr like end mills for machining fiberglass. It is so abrasive that it dulls tooling really fast. A roughing mill may provide the same benefit.
This is very nasty stuff for general wood working tools. It is very abrasive and will require material specific flute geometry and coatings. You can contact the folks at https://www.harveytool.com/ and ask to talk to an applications engineer. Spindle speed, feed rate, axial depth of cut as well as radial depth of cut are going to be very tool specific so be sure to get their help on that as well.
I have successfully used Dremel’s carbide grout removal bits for cutting carbon fiber, and G10 plate. Readily available at Home Depot stores.
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This is the style bit I was thinking of for composites. I believe these work better than standard edges.
Amana Tool 46008-K Solid Carbide CNC Router Bit Down Cut for Carbon Fiber Cutting 1/8 D x 1/2 CH x 1/4 Shank x 2 Inch Long, Spektra Extreme Tool Life Coated https://a.co/d/jaB5S7P
If you want your tool to last forever, PCD-tipped is the way to go for Garolite G10. It’s an extremely abraisive material and will dull carbide pretty quickly, coated or not. I’m using the Amana Tools DRB-418 for chamfering, and the MariTool 2101-.125-1-SM endmill. You should only need 1 of these tools unless you have a catastrophic crash with them. I cut a lot of G10, but I haven’t seen any wear yet, it turns to powder when cut, so with a cutting edge hard enough to resist the abraision, there doesnt seem to be a way for damage to occur.
Do you run under mist or a vaccum or do you just run it dry then clean up after?
I have a shop air filter nearby and I run G10 dry, though I’m sure you could run some coolant to keep the dust down too. The filter is just a good idea no matter what material is being cut though, imo.
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