What is Milling Cutter & Mill Cutter Types – Tips for Selecting Right CNC Cutting Tools | CNCLATHING

Milling cutter is the necessary tool for the machining on CNC mills, it’s advisable to figure out the types and features of different cutting tools and choose a right one, for saving cost and improving efficiency. CNClathing.com brings what is milling cutter, its types and tips for CNC cutting tool selection.

What is Milling Cutter?

A milling cutter is a rotary cutter with one or more teeth for milling. In the milling process, the cutter teeth cut off the allowance of the workpiece in turn and intermittently. It comes in cylindrical shape, with cutting edge at the circumference and bottom, to cut workpiece by rotating. Milling cutter is mainly used for machining plane, step, groove, forming surface and cutting workpiece on milling machines and CNC (computer numerical control) mills. 

Mill Cutter Types & End Milling Cutter

There are many kinds of milling cutters. Next, we’ll primarily introduce the end mill cutter. The general milling cutters (CNC milling cutters) can be divided into the following types:

1) Cylinder milling cutter: used to machine plane on horizontal milling machine. The cutter teeth are distributed on the circumference of the milling cutter. According to the tooth shape, they are divided into straight teeth and spiral teeth. Spiral wide tooth milling cutter has less teeth, high strength, the space for containing chips is large, suitable for rough machining. Side Milling Cutter is also cylinder milling cutter.

2) Face milling cutter: used to machine plane on vertical milling machine, end face milling machine or gantry milling machine. There are cutter teeth on end face and circumference, its structure includes integral type, inlaid type and rotatable type.

3) End mill cutter: used to process grooves, step surfaces, etc., when the cutter teeth are on the circumference and end face, it can’t be fed along the axial direction. When the end milling cutter has an end tooth passing through the center, it can be fed axially.

4) Plain Milling Cutter: also called Surface Milling Cutter or Slab Milling Cutter, used to mill flat surfaces, its axis parallel to the surface being milled.

5) Angle milling cutter:  including single angle milling cutter and double angle milling cutter

6) Saw milling cutter:  many cutter teeth on the circumference of deep groove and cutting workpiece, there are 15 ′ ~ 1 ° secondary deflection angles on both sides of the cutter teeth.

7) T-slot milling cutter: used to mill T-groove

There are also Form Milling Cutter, Fly Cutter, Inserted Tooth Milling Cutter, Hollow mill, Ball mill cutter, Involute gear cutter, Wood ruff cutter, Thread mill cutter, Hobbing cutter and other differenct types of CNC milling cutters.

End milling cutters may have straight or spiral flutes. Spiral flute end milling cutters are classified as left-hand or right-hand cutters depending on the direction of rotation of the flutes. The left-hand milling cutter is generally a kind of cutter selected under the demand of high-precision processing, generally used to produce the phone key, membrane switch panel, LCD panel, acrylic lens and other finishing processing. But there are some applications with high requirements in precision and finish, like the manufacture and processing of some mobile phone buttons or electrical panels, it is necessary to select the lower row cutting and turn left, so as to avoid cutting edge whitening and the edge chip.

Tips for CNC Cutting Tool Selection

The selection of cutting tools should be based on the machining capacity of machine tools, the performance of workpiece materials, processing procedures, cutting parameters and other factors. The general principle of CNC cutter selection is: convenient installation and adjustment, good rigidity, high durability and precision. Try to choose a shorter tool handle to improve the rigidity of the machining.
1) The size of the cutting tool should be suitable for the surface size of the machining parts to be processed
2) The end milling cutter is often used to process the peripheral contour of plane parts
3) The carbide cutter can be used to mill plane
4) The high-speed steel end mill can be used to machine bump and concave
5) Helical milling cutter is an ideal option for machining blank surface or rough machining hole
6) For the machining of solid profile and variable angle profile, ball end milling cutter, ring milling cutter, conic milling cutter and disc milling cutter are often used

As a professional precision machinining supplier, durable and proper cutting tools at Junying’s disposal for offering more efficient CNC milling services.