slitting saw question????

[Alistair Hosie]

I have seen the set up for using a slitting saw on a horizontal mill as it seems quite straight forward enough and a rigid set up being suppoorted both sides.
How easy is it to do this on a vertical mill? (Pics please)
I wonder what the process is as the support is no going to be so great,as you only can rely on the stability of one end of the spindle.Alistair

[tattoomike68]

I did a slot .060" , 3-1/2"deep (very deep), I did it in .500" passes and it took about an hour, In a big tool holder block for a screw machine.

Just go slow and use a cool-mister, it will be nice.

[mochinist]

Sorry I dont have any pics. When I do it I always climb cut with a fairly slow RPM's. Which ever axis I am moving in I will put a little pressure on the mills table lock so that the table does not try to jump forward on me. This way seems to scare alot of machinist but it is the way that I was taught and conventional cuts never seem to work good for me when I try. Tattoomike mentions using a mister, I am not saying his way wrong but I sure have had bad luck with it. I prefer a nice heavy cutting oil brushed on liberally with a paint brush. Flood coolant also works great if you have that option.

[PSD KEN]

Support at only one end is OK, you won't be applying much pressure.I Use them in a mini-mill.
Also in the lathe, made a mandrel to mount between centers, small table mounted to cross slide, rudimentry fence, works great!
Now, to scale down a Biesenmier fence.

[dvk]

As you know I have the tiny micro mill,
but using the variable slow speed I cut aluminum cross cuts in one pass (slow feed),
using my 3" dia. saw to cut 1/2" thick pieces I just sqirt cutting oil when it begins to sound bangy and take it nice and slow.
works fine for my lil. machine.

[Rustybolt]

If you can make some support washers that sandwich the saw ,and make them a little smaller than the depth you want to cut, it will make the job easier. Check your RPMs to the material carefully and flood with coolant, thin saws can dull very fast. The coolant is mostly for removing swarf efficiently.
we routinely cut to .400-.450 depths with .012 to .016 thickness saws.
Oh. Yeah. And make sure the toolholder is locked up tight against the taper.

[Thrud]

use antiseize compound on thin cuts - keeps the saw frombinding. This tip courtesy Oscar...

As far as the arbor goes, you can buy straight shank saw arbours (or make as you need) and use them in your milling chuck - you can also buy NT30 saw arbours for the larger sizes such as 1 1/4" bore - the straight shank adapters should only be used on smaller saws with 3/4" or less bore - otherwise they tend to slip from the torque. The large arbours are actually milling arbours 1 1/4" bore saws are a common size, they often have keyways in the bore to prevent slipping.

The best saws for deep grooves are the side cutting type - these are more expensive but rarely bind as they cut their own clearance everytime. The insert type saws are my first choice, but they can get expensive to "tooth up" - some use cut-off inserts for the 1mm wide saws and they go up from there - often they alternate the teeth side to side on wider saws...