VIDEO: TOOLING UP – Extreme Versatility with the Kennametal Dodeka Mini Milling Cutter

Narrator: Welcome to Tooling Up, a series by MSC Industrial Supply Company that provides real-world insights brought to you by leading industry experts and aimed at improving the efficiency and productivity of your operations.

Eddie: Hey everybody, this is Eddie with MSC and welcome to this episode of MSC's Tooling Up featuring Kennametal. In today's episode, we're going to talk about Kennametal's mini but mighty tool in the Dodeka Mini series. And to give us all the information we need on this specific tool, we have our good friend from the team at Kennametal, Tony. Let's bring him on in. Hey Tony, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of MSC's Tooling Up. Now before we get started, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do for the team at Kennametal?

Tony: Well hello Eddie, and as usual it's great to be back to discuss some of these amazing tools that Kennametal has to offer and with you guys at MSC. My name is Tony McClain. I'm a regional product manager for Kennametal. I’ve been with them a little over 11 years now. Basically I'm responsible for indexable milling on a regional level for the Americas so I do a lot of different things, I guess sometimes I wear a lot of different hats, but I work closely with our global product managers around the world.

Eddie: Wonderful, well thank you so much for joining us on today's episode. So now that we're set, let's jump right in Tony. Today we're going to be talking about the Dodeka Mini Milling Cutters. You know the drill. What do we need to know?

Tony: Well you know, we always know there's a lot of different choices out there when it comes to tooling Eddie. So you know one of our platforms that has been around for a long time, it's actually been a very successful platform for Kennametal, is the Dodeka Mini. And it falls in line it's I guess you could say it's the child of the Dodeka series because we have the Dodeka, we have the Dodeka Mini, we have the Dodeka, and then we have the Dodeka heavy so it kind of falls in line. The Dodeka Mini is typically for your smaller tapered machines, you know, like your CAT 40 or your live turret spindle machines, things of that nature for your lathes and different things. But it's a great tool, phenomenal tool, and as we get into this hopefully we'll get to explain a lot of the benefits of this tool as we go forward.

Eddie: You know this is a wonderful intro to a truly interesting tool. Now one thing Tony. We hear a lot of individuals say how versatile their tool is so in your opinion how truly versatile is the Dodeka Mini series?

Tony: Well I think when we speak about versatility, we have to kind of look at indexable milling tools as a whole, whether it's a 90 degree shoulder mill, whether it's a round insert or something of that nature, but the Dodeka Mini has a tremendous amount of flexibility. First off, it has 12 true cutting edges. It's capable to run in all major material groups such as stainless steel, cast iron, nonferrous and your high-temp alloys. It's very free cutting due to the different types of insert geometries and of course it also gives you the versatility to do a lot of different things with the cutter versus just linear I guess we would call it, or planar face milling with it.

Eddie: No, this is wonderful and as we talk more about this incredible and capable tool, Tony in your opinion what makes it truly unique?

Tony: I think what makes it unique is its capabilities and what it's able to do and I guess maybe in layman terms the functionality of the tool if I can say that word right. So again you're talking about it comes in 15 degree lead angle, 45 degree lead angle, and 60 degree lead angle. So you know the 15 degree we typically call it the high feed so you know again you get that very high feed, very high middle removal rates. All the different lead angles basically provide very high metal removal rates. In fact this tool typically provides up to about 30 percent higher metal removal rates over some of the other face milling tools that are out there. As well you know it's got anywhere from up to I should say 170,000 step to cut so you can get aggressive on sometimes on your depth of cut, but you know when you get down into it, you're able to ramp with this tool, you're able to helical interpolate, circular interpolate in a hole, on the outside. Typically with the hole we do recommend you do drill a hole first before you go in and try to blow the hole out from solid material, but again it just gives you all that versatility, the strong insert you know we have ground, we have pressed and centered to size, we have wipers for it, and it gives you the flexibility as a machinist, as a programmer, to be able to use utilize the tool and achieve those high metal removal rates.

Eddie: There you go and we reference what one can achieve so following, really listing all of those specific features that truly make it unique, let's boil it down Tony. What does this help the operators truly achieve at the spindle?

Tony: Well at the spindle it's going to give, you know, that economy of 12 indexes per edge so if you have a tool out there and if you preset your tools then it gives you 12 indexes. So the tool can stay in the machine even longer versus if you have to pull it out to replace the inserts in it. It also gives you that, the ease of I guess, of applying this tool because there's only one spare part and that's the screw. It doesn't matter if you're running the 45 degree, a 15 degree, or 60 degree it's the same insert. Again those inserts are available in multiple different grades and several different geometries or edge preps to cover all the different type of materials you have or the different type of applications that you have, so it's just a very versatile tool you know times money and to be able to have a tool in a machine that can run with 12 edges and have the metal removal rates that this tool does plus the functionality of it. It's kind of you know one stop shop I guess you could say for a face milling application.

Eddie: Definitely a list of benefits that operators everywhere are trying to achieve so this is truly interesting. Now when it comes to really how accommodating these inserts are Tony, what insight do you have for us?

Tony: Well, they're very accommodating because I guess because of the flexibility of the different inserts. When I say flexibility I'm talking about two different nose corner radii that's available, talking about the geometries that are available, the grades that are available that cover the different material groups and then the fact that there's also wiper inserts that are available. So you know you get you can have a heavy-duty rough milling face milling tool such as this and with the same tool be a fine finisher that provides an excellent floor surface finish.

Eddie: So Tony, we've been talking about flexibility as well as versatility, but how does this tool perform in various materials?

Tony: It performs very well whether you're just doing kind of just a face milling or maybe you're doing mill turning or things of that nature whether you're in let's say 718 Inconel or you're in 1018 steel so again you know the 12 true cutting edges, the different grades, different geometries based on the different types of materials that you're running and again it's all done with the same cutter body so it's just the insert that has to be swapped out for the different types of materials.

Eddie: Easy enough and with that being said, we've covered a lot of information here in today's episode. So as we wrap things up, can you give us all a quick recap on all the amazing things that we've covered today?

Tony: I'd love to Eddie. So you know when you think about the different choices that manufacturers have today out there in the shop and from things of reducing inventory, reducing tool set up time, things of that nature, you know the Dodeka Mini gives you that flexibility again from a modular all the way up to a shell mill, one inch all the way up to five inch, and then the different insert grades and geometries including the wiper that covers anything from high-temp alloys to nonferrous materials, so the capabilities of the cutter itself from ramping to helical interpolation with the cutter and not to mention just a simple fact the free cutting that it does in just a heavy-duty or fine-finishing face milling application.

Eddie: Well thank you so much Tony for that quick recap. So for everyone else looking to learn more about the Dodeka Mini series or all of the other amazing offerings that Kennametal is bringing to the market, where can we look?

Tony: Well just go online and go to mscdirect.com/Kennametal.

Eddie: Wonderful hey well thank you so much for your time, your passion and expertise Tony on today's episode of MSC's Tooling Up featuring Kennametal.

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