Plunge Cut With Ball End Mill

Starter pack end mills.

Plunge cut with ball end mill.

High quality 2 flute slot drills up cut and down cut end mills. Plunge milling operations vary considerably from traditional milling. This is due to cutting flutes that extend to and protrude from the end face and enable plunge cutting. They use the end of the tool to cut instead of the periphery which beneficially changes the cutting forces from a predominantly radial to axial direction.

You can not plunge an end mill into material like you would a drill bit. Additionally most mills are center cutting meaning they are able to cut both axially and laterally. How to apply plunge milling operations cutting process. For most woods i usually set the plunge rate to 10 mmsec or less.

It can be compared to a boring operation with interrupted cuts. For hardwoods plywood and aluminium. Compression end mills combine the best of both worlds and produce a smooth surface on both ends of the workpiece when cutting. Ball end mills also known as ball nose end mills are used for milling contoured surfaces slotting and pocketing.

Square end mills are used for general milling applications including slotting profiling and plunge cutting. So what type of end mills do you require for general milling applications. Plunge rate this is the speed at which the bit enters the wood. Keep in mind that end mills are meant to cut from the side whereas drills are meant to cut vertically.