Various Types of Milling Cutters

 Milling Cutters:

1. Plain Milling Cutter:

 Plain Milling Cutter

It has straight or helical teeth cut on the periphery of a disc or a cylindrical surface. It may be of solid inserted blade or tipped type, and is usually profile sharpened but may be form relieved also. Generally helical teeth are used if the width of the cutter exceeds 15 mm.

The plain milling cutter is usually used for milling flat surfaces parallel to cutter axis. Helical teeth cutter is employed where large stock removal is required. Helical angle permits several teeth to chop simultaneously which ends up in smoother cutting action.

Heavy duty plain cutters have fewer teeth and angle of 35-45°. These are sometimes nicked on their periphery on a helical pattern for chip breaking and smooth operation.

2. Side Milling Cutter:

  Side Milling Cutter

This cutter is analogous to plain cutter except that it's teeth on the side. However, the side milling cutter may have teeth on the periphery and on one or both sides of the tool. These cutters may have straight, spiral or staggered teeth. Further these may be solid, inserted blade or tipped construction, and may be profile sharpened or form relieved.

Half side milling cutters have teeth only on one side in addition to circumferential teeth. These cutters are usually utilized in pair for milling both ends of labor to a given dimension.

3. End Mill Cutter:

  End Mill Cutter

 These cutters have an integral shaft for driving and have teeth on both periphery and ends. These are the cutters with teeth on the periphery and end integral with a shank for holding and driving. These are used to mill flat, horizontal, vertical, bevel, chamfer and slant surfaces, grooves and keyways, and to cut slot and in recess work such as die making etc.

The flutes on the cutter may be either straight or helical. End mills with high helix are used for milling aluminum and light metals. The end mill cutter may have either taper shank or straight shank.

Large cutters (shell end mill cutters) have the cutter part separate and are held to a stub arbor due to the high cost of the high speed steel. This construction leads to a substantial saving in material cost.

4. Metal Slitting Saw Cutter:

  Metal Slitting Saw Cutter

These cutters resemble a clear to side cutter except that these are made very thin. These are usually profile sharpened and may be either solid or tipped. These are used for cutting off and slotting operations and are somewhat similar to the circular saw blades. Plain cutters of this sort are relieved by grinding the edges to afford clearance for the cutter.

          i.            There are six types of saw cutter

         ii.            Plain Metal-Slitting Cutter

       iii.            Staggered-Teeth Milling Cutter

       iv.            Side Teeth Slitting Cutter

        v.            Angle Milling Cutter

       vi.            Concave Milling Cutter

     vii.            Cylindrical Milling Cutter

5. T-Slot Cutter:

 T-Slot Cutter

These are used for milling T-slots in one operation and are available in special sizes for standard T-slots. These resemble plain or side milling cutters which have an integral straight or tapered shaft for driving.

Straight or staggered teeth are cut on the periphery and both sides. For making T-slot, first a side milling cutter makes the groove and then the T-slot cutter enlarges the width of the bottom of the groove of form the desired T-slot.

6. Form Milling Cutter:

 Form Milling Cutter

These have a special curved tooth outline and are used for milling contours of the varied shapes. According to the method of grinding employed, these could be classified as profile-ground or face-ground.

          i.            Form Cutter

         ii.            Shaped or Form Profile Cutter

       iii.            Form or Cam-Relieved Cutter

7. Fly Cutter:

 Fly Cutter

Basically, the fly cutter is a cylinder with provision for mounting one or more tool bits or single point cutters on the face or periphery. This is particularly suitable for high speed operation for quick operation by giving more feed per tooth on metals like magnesium and aluminum.

 8. Inserted Tooth Milling Cutter:

  Inserted Tooth Milling Cutter

The use of this sort of cutter allows fabrication of the most body of the cutter from machine steel which is comparatively less costly and hard. The teeth are formed of alloy tool steel, and are attached to the body mechanically with set screws or brazed in place. The teeth position can be adjusted for wear. This is very suitable for expensive cutter material like carbide. Cutters during this group are confined mainly to large diameter cutters referred to as face mills.