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MACHINE SHOP KNOW-HOW Plunge-cutting end mills These are end mills that can make plunge cuts. They have a flute that extends across the centerline axis of the cutter to remove material from this area. See Figure 8-54 (top three end mills).

Two-Flute Center-Cutting End Mills Can Be Used for Plunge Cutting

Two-Flute Ball End

Four-Flute

Four-Flute Non-Center Cutting

with Center Hole

Figure 8-54. Plunge-cutting end mills have at least one flute that extends to the centerline axis of the cutter to cut material at the center of the hole bottom.

Ball-end cutters These end mills, shown in Figures 8-54 (second from top), cost more to purchase and to sharpen than conventional end mills. Still, they are excellent for aluminum and have many uses:

- Making plunge cuts. - Applying a chamfered or fluted edge. - Applying a rounded inside corner to reduce stress concentrations. - Drilling round-bottom holes. - Forming a slot with a round bottom. - Making a three-dimensional contour, usually under CNC control. - Machining die cavities.
The chip clearing capacity of ball-end milling cutters is not as good as that of square-end milling cutters. This can adversely affect surface finish. Here are two ways to improve the surface finish when using ball-end cutters:

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- When ball-end mill cutters are used to cut a round-bottom inside

corner, leave 0.030 inches to finish the corner. Plan on three 0.010inch cuts and use the first two to adjust the feed and speed so you will get a smooth surface finish with the third and final pass.

- Use compressed air on the cutter to remove chips and always use

climb milling for aluminum. Roughing end mills, also called hogging or corn cob cutters These cutters remove up to three times as much metal as conventional end mills and the small chips they make are easy to remove with cutting fluid or compressed air. Roughing end mills are most commonly used in production shops, especially those with powerful CNC milling machines which produce so many chips when using regular end mills that removing them is a problem. Typically, roughing end mills remove most of the metal and a conventional end mill finishes the job, leaving a smooth finish. Roughing end mills are excellent in Bridgeport-type mills because they require much less spindle power than regular end mills to remove the same volume of metal. See Figure 8-55.

Figure 8-55. Roughing end mills remove more metal and produce more easily removed small chips.

End Mill Materials

There are four major choices in end mill materials: High-speed steel cutters (HSS or M7 tool steel) is the least expensive, most common end mill metal. HSS end mills are suitable for most jobs in non-production shops, and these cutters are easily sharpened. HSS cobalt steel cutters (M42 with 8% cobalt) cost more than HSS end mills, but when cutting hard materials, they last much longer than HSS cutters. Cobalt steel cutters are excellent for cast iron where sand particles from the casting process are embedded in the castings surface and rapidly dull HSS end mills. Cobalt cutters work well on hard metals like tool steels. Solid carbide cutters have a couple of advantages over HSS and HSS cobalt cutters. First, they offer exceptional wear resistance, and second, they are stiffer so they deflect less under load. This reduces or eliminates side-wall taper. And, because carbide softens at a much higher temperature than HSS, speeds and feeds 23 times higher than HSS end

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MACHINE SHOP KNOW-HOW mills are common. However, carbide is shock-sensitive and is easily shattered or chipped if the set-up and machine are not rigid. Unless you are cutting tool steels and very hard materials, solid carbide end mills are not usually the best choice in a non-production shop. Solid carbide cutters are easily damaged in handling and storage, so keep them in plastic tubing, protective vinyl mesh netting, or in hot-dip wax to prevent fractured edges. Also, they can shatter or chip if dropped. Carbide insert cutters have a couple of important advantages over HSS and HSS cobalt end mills:

- First, they do not need expensive resharpening, only the replacement

of their carbide inserts which cost only a few dollars each.

- Second, when the inserts become worn, they can be replaced without

removing the tool from the spindle. And, because the carbide inserts have uniform dimensions, all DRO readings for the parts dimensions remain unchanged after the insert change.

Figure 8-56 shows three carbide insert cutters. None of these are suitable for plunge cutting. The square insert on the left has four cutting edges, the round insert in the center may be rotated three times, and the triangular cutter on the right has three cutting edges. These multiple edges extend the useful life of the inserts and reduce machining costs. Carbide insert cutters are particularly well suited to hard or abrasive materials like tool steel, cast iron and glassfilled plastics. The cutters in Figure 8-56 can be divided into two types. The left and center cutters are form cutters used for outside chamfered edges and inside bottom radii, respectively. The insert cutter on the right is a slot cutter.
Carbide Inserts Carbide Insert

Weldon Flat 3/4" Shank

Form Cutters Slot Cutter

Carbide Insert Carbide Cutter End View

Figure 8-56. End mills with carbide insert cutters. Each of these cutters holds two inserts.

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Shop-Made Carbide Cutters

Inexpensive, durable and resharpenable end mills and flycutters can be easily made by TIG welding a brazed carbide lathe tool bit to a dowel pin or a CRS shank using nickel stainless steel welding rod. This welding rod should meet or exceed 120,000 psi tensile strength. By choosing the outside diameter of the shank to be twice the nominal size of the lathe tool, the carbide cutter is at the exact center height with the CRS shank for welding. After welding, the brazed carbide lathe tool is trimmed to length in a bandsaw or with an abrasive disc, and finally, the remaining lathe tool shank is ground for proper clearance as it swings around its arc. Despite their being single-lip cutters, these shop-made cuttersa type of end millproduce a fine surface finish on steel and aluminum. These 45 form tools will easily cut a chamfer on Rc 60 steel. Other cutter angles can be made by altering the cone angle on the CRS round. The shoulder on the cutter shank prevents the shank from slipping up into the collet or tool holder under cutting forces and it also insures repeatability. See Figure 8-57.
3/4" CRS or Dowel Pin 3/4" CRS 1" CRS Shoulder 3/4" 5/8"

Trim Here A B C 1/2" C6 Brazed Carbide Cutters 3/8" C6 Brazed Carbide Cutter Made into a Form Tool Shop-made Flycutter Made Using a 3/8" C6 Brazed Carbide Cutter D

Figure 8-57. Shop-made cutters made by TIG welding brazed carbide lathe tool bits to CRS shanks. Flycutter (A), form tools (B & D) and cutter and shank set up for welding (C).

End Mill Operations

Here are some of the most common end mill operations: Facing applies a flat, smooth surface by using only the end of the cutter. See Figure 8-58 (A) This is a good way to bring a relatively narrow edge to dimension. Facing leaves an excellent surface finish when used for only a few back and forth cutting passes, but end milling is usually too slow for smoothing large areas. For large areas, flycutters and insert end mills are a

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MACHINE SHOP KNOW-HOW better choice. A properly sharpened flycutter with a very slow feed will produce a fine finish. Because the 46 carbide inserts in a facing mill can never be set to exactly the same length, the finish they produce will not be as smooth as that of a flycutter.
Facing A B Filleting Profiling C

Slotting D

Blind Slotting

F Pocketing

Figure 8-58. Common end mill operations.

Filleting cuts a step into the work using the side flutes of the cutter. See Figure 8-58 (B). Profiling uses the end of the cutter to make a projecting island. It cuts a fillet on all corners of the work. See Figure 8-58 (C). Slotting and blind slotting applies a slot in either a single horizontal cut or in a series of side-by-side horizontal cuts. This is best done by first making a series of plunge cuts which are then connected with one or more horizontal passes. This technique is easier on the cutter and mainly dulls only the end of the mill, which is more easily resharpened than the side flutes. Slots cut in tubing are started by fist drilling a starter hole, then using the side of the cutter to make the slot. When cutting slots in thin materials, place a piece of wood, plywood or Masonite on the milling table below the work, then clamp the work to the milling table. This prevents damage to the table. See figure 8-58 (D & E). Pocketing removes material from a sunken, enclosed area. Usually the end of the cutter plunges into the work to begin the pocket and the side flutes cut away the remaining material. Removing chips with a vacuum cleaner or compressed air provides a smoother finish because the chips are not redrawn under the cutter and scratch the work. See Figure 8-58 (F).