Radius turning

[ShawnR]

I stumbled across this article while surfing. Thought that, as basic as it is, illustrates an application of other tools to get the job done in a pinch. In this case, for those of us with out a ball cutter.

Second-Thought Tie-Down Eye - KITPLANES

Every aircraft has tie-down points. Most of us never give them a second thought until a catastrophe strikes—like the big storm that threatened early bird arrivals at Oshkosh this year. High winds in town knocked out power and downed several trees. But at the airshow grounds, only one aircraft...

www.kitplanes.com

 

[RobinHood]

I have used round-over milling cutters before. Take one cutting edge (most of mine have 4) and set it up just like they show in the article. Works quite well.

The process does have a tendency to chatter when the full radius is engaged at the end. I found that working in both X and Z in small increments to minimize the engaged cutting length works better. The material was 4330, so maybe not a good comparison to softer stuff…