Milling Cutters

Milling cutters covers a wide variety of rotating cutters that are used in all types of machining.  Common configurations include end mills, face mills, shell mills, and many other application specific cutters and geometries.  Many properties of milling cutters can be optimized for the specific material being machined, including the number of cutting flutes or inserts, rake and relief angles of the cutting edge(s), material of construction, specialized coatings to improve lubricity and life, and the rotational speed and feed rate of the cutter are examples of factors in optimizing cutting efficiency, resultant material finish, and cutter life.

End mills are very widely used milling cutters.  They are typically mounted vertically and have two or more helical flutes.  End mills are usually configured to cut with their ends and on their sides.  Face mills are predominantly used to cut with the ends of the cutter rather than their sides. The term "face" refers to the creation of a flat face on the work piece.  Face mills often have a larger diameter than the width of the workpiece being faced, so that the surface can be processed in one pass.  Shell mills are a larger type of face or end mill that mounts onto an arbor, rather than having an integral shank.  Typically there is a hollow or recess in the center of the shell mill for mounting hardware onto a separate arbor or shank.  Slab mills typically use the peripheral edges for cutting, usually with helical cutting edges.  They are commonly mounted horizontally to produce plane finishes on the workpiece.  Plunge mills are optimized for plunging the cutter directly into the material being worked.   Single angle cutters are angled on one side to produce an angle or chamfer on the workpiece edge.  Single angle cutters are angled on one side to produce an angle or chamfer on the workpiece edge.  Dovetail milling cutters are specialized tools for cutting a dovetail groove into a workpiece, for fitting or joining parts.  Keyseat cutters produce a slot, which serves as a seat for a complementary engagement key. They are typically used to key shafts to provide positive engagement and prevent unwanted rotation.  T-slot cutters have side cutting edges, which feed into a workpiece to produce a "T" slot.  Corner rounding cutters produce a smooth radius on workpiece edges.  Concave formed cutters produce a convex feature on the workpiece, most typically a male semicircle.  Convex formed cutters produce a concave feature on the workpiece, most typically a female semicircle.  Gear hob milling cutters are used to cut tooth form on gears.  Gear hobs and cutters are ground to produce teeth, usually of an involute form, in standard American pitches or metric modules.  Specialty or custom gear hobs are frequently available from gear hob suppliers.  Button or copy cutters use circular or "button" inserts rather than traditional square or triangular inserts. This type of significantly radiused edge can allow for enhanced feed rates and depth of cuts at lower power.  Helical form cutters are side-cutting mills with customizable profiles.  Their intricately ground geometry combines helical flute cutting efficiency with a user-specified edge profile. Typically, the customer is required to specify the required edge profile.

Milling cutters can be configured as either a solid construction or a holder and inserts construction.  Tip or end geometries can be square end, ball nose, radius tip, or chamfer end.  If applicable milling cutters can have a finishing type.  These include roughing or hogging, or finishing.

Milling cutters can be constructed from one of the following materials, carbide, micrograin carbide, ceramic, cobalt, high-speed steel, and diamond PCD.  Coatings for milling cutters include titanium nitride, titanium carbonitride, titanium aluminum nitride, aluminum titanium nitride, aluminum oxide, chromium nitride, zirconium nitride, and diamond.

• Cryogenic Tool Conditioning Extends Useful Life
  Cryogenic Tool Conditioning: Fact or Frostbite? Exposure to extreme cold can cut wear so tools last longer. � Soaking parts at -300°F or less relieves internal stresses by "squeezing"...
  (read more)
• Tormach Tooling System Operation Manual
  TTS tool holders are designed to hold milling cutters, drills, and similar tooling in milling machine spindles. The tool holders consist of a 3/4" straight shank body with a precision ground shoulder...
  (read more)
• General Milling Application Data - Milling 101
  Select a cutter diameter greater than the workpiece width by a ratio of approximately 1.5 to 1. This will ensure that each insert enters the cut without the frictional, no-chip phase which occurs when...
  (read more)

Pages: 1 - 3 of 71

Part Numbers for Milling Cutters