MILLING MACHINE

Milling is a process of removing metal by feeding the work against a rotating multipoint cutter.
The machine tool intended for this purpose is known as milling machine

Horizontal milling machine

Base -It is made of cast iron and supports all the other parts of the machine tool. A vertical column is
mounted upon the base
Column- It is mounted upon the base and is box shaped. It houses the mechanism for providing drive for
the spindle.

Knee -It slides up and down on the guide ways of the column. An elevating screw mounted on the base
obtains this movement.

Saddle- It is mounted on the guide ways of the knee and moves towards or away from the face of the
column.

Table- The table is moved longitudinally either by power or manually on the guide ways of the saddle.

Spindle- It is located in the upper part of the column. It receives power from the motor through belt,
gears and clutches.

VERTICAL MILLING MACHINE

Work holding devices used in milling machine

Different work holding devices used in milling machine are

1. Vices 2.Angle plate 3.V-block 4.Step block 5.Special milling attachments (Indexing head)
Cutter holding devices used in milling machine

Depending on the design of the cutter, there are several methods of supporting milling cutters on the
machine spindle.

1) Arbor 2) Collet 3) Adapter

1. Arbor- Milling cutters with central holes are mounted and keyed on a shaft called arbor. There are
three different types of arbor namely Pilot end arbor, ‘A’ type arbor and stub arbor. The arbors are
made with taper shanks for correct alignment with the machine spindle. The left side of the arbor is
threaded internally to receive a draw bolt. This draw bolt connects the arbor with the spindle.

2 Collet- It is a form of sleeve bushing used to hold arbors or cutters having a smaller shank than the
spindle taper. Collets are connected to the spindle by a drawbolt and the rotary motion is transmitted to
the cutters.

3. Adapters- Milling cutters having shanks are generally mounted on adapters. The outside taper of the
adapter conforms to the taper hole of the spindle. The shank of the cutter fits into the taper hole of the
adapter.
Milling cutters used in milling machine

There are different types of milling cutters used in a milling machine. A suitable milling cutter is selected
according to the need. They are

1. Plain milling cutter 2. Side milling cutter 3. Metal slitting saw 4. Angle milling cutter

5. End milling cutter 6. ‘T’ – Slot milling cutter 7. Fly cutter 8. Formed cutter.

Plain milling cutter -Plain milling cutters are cylindrical in shape and have teeth on the circumferential
surface only. They are used for producing flat surfaces parallel to the axis of rotation of the spindle. The
teeth of the cutter may be straight or helical according to the size.

Side milling- cutter Side milling cutters have teeth on its periphery and also on one or both of its sides.
They are intended for removing metal from the sides of the work piece.
End mill -These cutters have cutting teeth on the end as well as on the periphery of the cutter. It is made
of two parts – body and shank. The shanks of the cutter may be straight or taper. These cutters are
useful in machining long narrow slots, holes and flat surfaces.
Milling machine operations

The following operations are performed using suitable milling cutters.

1. Plain milling 2. Flute milling 3. Face milling 4. Keyway milling

5. Side milling 6. Drilling & reaming 7. Straddle milling 8. Boring 9. Angular milling

10. Gear cutting 11. Gang milling 12. Thread milling 13. Form milling

14. Cam milling 15. End milling

Plain milling- It is the operation of production of a flat surface parallel to the axis of rotation of the
cutter. It is also called as slab milling. Plain milling cutters and slab milling cutters are used to perform
this operation.

Plain milling can be classified as up milling and down milling.

Up milling

In this method, the workpiece mounted on the table is fed against the direction of rotation of
the milling cutter. The cutting force is minimum during the beginning of the cut and maximum
at the end of cut. The thickness of chip is more at the end of the cut. As the cutting force is
directed upwards, it tends to lift the workpiece from the fixtures. A difficulty is felt in pouring
coolant on the cutting edge.
Down milling

The workpiece mounted on the table is moved in the same direction as that of the rotation of
the milling cutter. The cutting force is maximum at the beginning and minimum at the end of
cut. The chip thickness is more at the beginning of the cut. The workpiece is not disturbed
because of the bite of the cutter on the work. The coolant directly reaches to the cutting point.

Face milling The face milling is the operation performed by the face milling cutter rotated
about an axis at right angles to the work surface.

Straddle milling- It is the operation of production of two vertical surfaces on both sides of the
work by two side milling cutters mounted on the same arbor. By using suitable spacing collars,
the distance between the two cutters is adjusted correctly. The straddle milling is commonly
used to produce square or hexagonal surfaces.
 Gang milling- It is the operation of machining several surfaces of work simultaneously by
feeding the table against a number of cutters (either of same type or of different type)
mounted on the arbor of the machine.
Indexing methods

Indexing can be defined as the process of equally dividing the surface of circular work material.

Eg:- such as in cutting gear teeth, cutting splines, milling grooves in reamers and taps,
and spacing holes on a circle.
There are different indexing methods in popularity. These are :

(a) Direct indexing (b) Simple indexing ……

Direct Indexing

It is also named as rapid indexing. For this direct indexing plate is used which has 24
equally spaced holes in a circle. It is possible to divide the surface of workpiece into any
number of equal divisions out of 2, 3, 4, 56, 8, 12, 24 parts. These all numbers are the
factors of 24.

In this case first of all worm and worm wheel is disengaged. We find number of holes by
which spring loaded pin is to be moved. If we want to divide the surface into 6 parts than
number of holes by which pin is to be moved 24 N for 6 parts N = 6. So number of
holes 26 4 6 holes that is after completing one pair of milling whole surface of
workpiece we have to move the pin by 4 holes before next milling operation, that is to
be done for 5 number of times for making hexagonal bolt.

Simple Indexing

It is also named as plain indexing. It overcomes the major limitation of direct indexing.
The arrangement is shown below

Here inside the index head, there is a worm and worm gear arrangement. The worm
wheel has 40 teeth’s. With one revolution of the crank, the worm wheel will rotate 1/40
revolution.

Three indexing plates are used. These plates have concentric circles of holes with their
different numbers as described below:
Indexing Procedure

(a) Divide 40 by the number of divisions to be done on the circumference of workpiece.

This gives movement of indexing crank. Indexing crank movement 40 N , N is the
number of divisions to be made on the circumference of workpiece.

(b) If the above number is a whole number, then crank is rotated by that much number
of revolutions after each milling operations, till the completion of the work. For example,
if we want to divide the circumference into 10 number of parts. Indexing crank
movement 40 4 10 revolutions. That is the indexing crank is given 4 revolutions after
each of milling operation for 9 more milling operations.

(c) If indexing crank movement calculated by 40 N is not whole number, it is simplified

and then expressed as a whole number and a fraction.

Eg:- Let us do the indexing to cut 19 teeth on a spur gear blank that means we need to
divide the circumference of gear blank into 19 identical, parts. Crank movement is
calculated s given below.

Crank movement =40/N

=40/19 =2(⅔)

Which means….After cutting the first teeth, put the crank pin to the 19 holes circle of the
crank plate.Then do 2 times rotation and the put the crank pin to the second hole of 19
holes circle.Cut the second teeth at this position.