Question on End mills?

Re: Question on End mills?

Brian Holcombe

Depends, are they center cutting end mills?

Re: Question on End mills?

Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana

Taken directly from a end mill producer / seller! "Two flute end mills (eg. 600, 600T, XL600, 600CO) are sometimes called "slot drills" because they can plunge cut and then mill a slot. They can be run at high production rates to remove high volume of material. Recommended for cutting slots, keyways and pockets."

End mills can be made of hardened steel for normal cutting of non-hardened steel and other soft materials - hardened steel requires solid carbide end mills.

Re: Question on End mills?

Ellis Walentine

End mills behave similarly to regular router bits, in that you should move the bit laterally as you plunge, so that the leading edge of the cutting tip is always clearing the way for the non-cutting center of the bit. Center-cutting end mills are more expensive, but they will drill stationary holes properly.

Ellis

Re: Question on End mills?

John lucas

Some end mills have teeth ground in 5he bottom that let it do a.plung cut.

Re: Question on End mills?

John K Jordan

Those with the cutting edges just towards the edge and not in the center won't work for plunge cuts.

I always buy the center cutting type for metal work. I plunge a little and clear a lot.

JKJ

seek knowledge not answers

Mark Hennebury

Learn to understand the cutting principles and you will be know what you require for each operation. Seek answers and you will receive many, but you will never know if they are correct, or understand why.

Re: seek knowledge not answers

Barry Irby

Excellent! I like it! I like knowledge. You are correct, I was looking at the wrong part of the problem. Somehow I assumed an end mill was an end mill and the answer would be simple.

By the way, do you have any knowledge on end mills you could share? Any suggestion on how to start understanding end mills?

Re: seek knowledge not answers

Clifton C

Grasshopper, first you must be the end mill...

Theory guides, experiment decides

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

In less time than it would take to start my computer to post a question I could try a boring cut with whatever style, and there must be hundreds of styles, of end mill I had on hand, and what ever need I contemplated, that inspired the question. I have no doubt that some kinds of mills will bore just fine in some kinds of material. After all, a nail chucked in a drill "bores" just fine in wood to make a pilot hole.

Re: Question on End mills?

John in NM

Yes, the material matters. Any endmill will cut wood ok, but the mill design is optimized for it's function & material to be cut. Closest thing to a wood router bit is an endmill intended for aluminum - high speed cutting, large flutes. But they are also intended to run in a coolant stream usually, so I would stick with router bits. Wood is more abrasive than aluminum, hence the prevalence of carbide for router bits and high speed steel for mills.

There are lots of 1/8" shank router bits available, check out toolstoday.com.

End mills for wood

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

It is common, in fact the only way, to cut troughs for stringing with end mills designed for metal. There are no 1/32" wood router bits.

Sometimes Ignorance is Bliss....

Barry Irby

Not knowing there were so many possibilities I just bought some endmills from a tool salvage/reseller and chucked them up and went to work. They cut beautifully. Sometimes it's good to be lucky. Having paid $5 or $10 each there was not much at risk. This may also explain why the one I have with four shallow flutes basically just smokes.

I have often wished I had been born lucky instead of so good looking.

Specialization

John in NM

There are exceptions to the general rule of course, all one has to do is make a close to unambiguous statement and a special case comes up

Yes, for really tiny work, or really non-aggressive cuts (a stringing groove seems like both) you might be better off with an endmill. I would bet one of those four flute ones would be good for this, keeping tearout to a minimum.

Re: End mills for wood *LINK*

Jesse Cloud

Actually, luthier sites offer 1/32 bits.

I only use them for shallow troughs and slow cuts, though.


Small router bits on stewmac.com

Re: Question on End mills?

Tony - Memphis

Hmm, I'm not sure. However, I buy mills that are designated as CNC router bits. I haven't given much thought to the design of the tools honestly. I still don't think that twist drills are ok for CNC routers.

I did use my vac table this weekend (I used a 1/8" diameter bit to drill all the hundreds of holes). It worked very well. I was quite pleased. I am using a shop vac for suction. I was experimenting cutting veneer with a drag knife. It worked out pretty well. Some issues with sharp internal corners, but it worked ok. I need to do some more work with it to learn the ins and outs. I made an inlay and still had to do a lot of hand fitting (compass rose). I glued it up last night. I'll un-clamp it tonight and see what I got. I've done inlay with it before, but that was a milling technique where this is cutting.

Someone already mentioned toolstoday - great resource for bits and for learning.

Tony