Reply To: practice milling

[mclark3617]

I would recomend starting with aluminum or reg steel,,,plastic machines easy but its too soft and hard to handle. It squishes in the vise and can pull out easy. Remember to pay attention to how your feeding in relation to the direction your cutter is going, its called conventional or climb cutting,,,conventional cutting the cutter is cutting into the material, climb cutting the cutter is turning the same direction as your feeding, like a whell on the road,,,if you take a heaving enough cut the cutter can pull the table along and mess thing up,,,save that for light finish cuts. For roughing the cutter should be turning opposite the feed so your pushing the cutter into the material. Google it and you can get some visuals to help out. Have fun and watch the chips, they can get hot