Facing tool for aluminium

CNC Machines Nomad
1

I’m a complete beginner so sorry if I get the terminology wrong.

I’m going to be using my Nomad 3 mainly for milling aluminium, and in most of the videos online of other machines milling aluminium they use a big “face cutter” to completely flatten the top face of the billet stock to start with. Is there anything like that available for the Nomad? I saw this but it says it is only for wood: McFly Surfacing Cutter - Carbide 3D

If not, I guess you just use a normal flat bottomed endmill to do this?

Thanks

2

I use the 1/4 endmill to face on mine, but you need to take super shallow cuts on it.

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3

Chris

Please respond with what model of Nomad you have earlier models only used 1/8" tooling. The newer ones can use 1/4 and 1/8" tooling.

4

The Nomad 3 has a stronger spindle motor than the previous Nomad, but it doesn’t have the power to use anything over 1/4" diameter tools effectively. On my Nomad 883 Pro I only use a 1/4" endmill for facing. Everything else is done with a 1/8" tool or smaller.

The McFly Cutter is also not designed for aluminum.

5

For a Nomad, you should only use 1/8" or smaller tooling on harder materials.

The bed on your machine was faced off w/ a #102Z 1/8" endmill as part of the commissioning process.

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6

Yeah I’m aware I need to use cutters with a 1/8" shank, but that doesn’t answer the question. Maybe I should reword the question to: Are there any facing tools similar to the McFly but in 1/8" shank variety? (I did search online for some but wasn’t sure if the lack of results was just because I’m using the wrong terms etc)

7

Not just 1/8" shank, but also 1/8" or less cutting diameter.

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8

ohhh ok, didn’t realise that. Thanks for the info

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9

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