CNC milling cutter selection principle, learned to save a lot of money!

Milling cutters are spiral tools with one or more flutes for milling. Each flutes intermittently cuts the surplus of the work piece in turn.

 

Milling cutters are mainly used on milling machines for machining planes, steps, grooves, forming surfaces and cutting off workpieces. When selecting the milling cutter, pay attention to the cutter body and the tool holder:

 

1. The milling cutters are used on CNC machining centers or on ordinary milling machines.

2. The cutting material and hardness of the milling cutter.

3. Milling cutters specifications, such as: cutting length, total length, cutting diameter, shank diameter, etc.

 

 

 

 

If it is used on the CNC machining center, it should use solid carbide, and the ordinary milling machine can use the white steel.

 

The hardness of white steel milling cutters are softer than solid carbide milling cutters. High-speed steel tools are cheap and good toughness, but their strength is not high. They are easy lead to cutter back-off. Moreover, the wear resistance and red hardness are relatively poor. The high-speed steel cutter has a thermal hardness of about 600 degrees and a hardness of about 65HRC. It is obvious that when cutting hard material with white steel milling cutters, it is easy to burn a knife if the coolant is not in place. This is one of the reasons why the hot hardness is not high.

 

Carbide milling cutters have good thermal and wear resistance, but they have poor impact resistance. They will smash as soon as they fall. Carbide is a material made by powder metallurgy. The hardness is up to about 90HRA, and the hot hardness is about 900-1000 degrees.Therefore, white steel milling cutters are suitable for general milling machines, and carbide milling cutters are used for CNC machining centers.

Related reading: 1 flute milling cutter, end milling cutter