The Main Types of Milling Cutters for Metal

There are several steps involved in metal machining, so it's important to carefully evaluate the types of mills you can normally use on a drill to get exactly what you need. Namely, a mechanical machining operation.

With milling, we can remove excess material with a machine called a milling machine and a rotating cutting tool. A mill that you can also use on a normal drilling tool, taking advantage of the rotational movement.

In any case, what you need to know is already defined: there are different types of mills that you can find in the Krino catalog. Some examples? Here is the list you should keep at hand to enrich your small (but always effective) mechanical workshop.

Mills Divided by Material Used

The mill is a cutting tool made up of different cutting edges and with a different shape. To list the different types of tools you can use, we can start by evaluating the material used to create the cutting edges, called teeth, arranged on the circumference.

Let's start with mills made of high-speed steel (HSS - High Speed Steel): these are basic tools, suitable for roughing and finishing work on non-ferrous materials. They are less expensive mills but still of good quality, suitable for less demanding applications.

Solutions that require different options. For example, a type of mill suitable for these challenges can be one made of CBN (cubic boron nitride) and PCD (polycrystalline diamond): hard materials that allow machining of abrasive and tough materials.

Such as, for example, hardened steels and cast iron. Also very interesting are models composed of a steel body with replaceable hardmetal inserts: this way you can replace only the elements that wear out quickly due to fast rotation.

Types of Mills with Different Shapes

Another way to differentiate the different types of mills on the market: the shape. There are solutions with different structures that are used in different phases of metal machining. Here are the interesting options you should always evaluate carefully.

• End Mills
  • Ball Nose End Mills
  • Roughing End Mills
• Plunge Mills
• Face Mills
• Thread Mills

Cylindrical Mills

First of all, we need to consider the famous cylindrical mills (end mills) which represent the most numerous and versatile family of tools for finishing work. They can have cutting edges both on the bottom and around the perimeter or only on the sides.

In either case, we're talking about a solution with a flat and square head. Alternatively, we have the ball nose end mills: spherical cylindrical mills designed for complex machining with curves and shaped work areas, concave, complex to manage.

Yet another alternative: the roughing end mills, that is, cylindrical mills that have singular cutting edges: compared to base models, they offer a wavy or serrated profile to tackle a decisive point: the removal of large quantities of material.

Plunge Mills

Another large family of mills you need to consider for your work adjusting metal surfaces: plunge mills. Fundamental characteristic? They are similar to cylindrical mills, but these options have front cutting edges designed to perform plunging holes and pocketing clearances. They are also used to prepare holes.

It might look like a normal drill bit, used to drill metal. But it's not: we're talking about equipment that allows not only drilling but also working the flanks of the hole so as to obtain a well-structured final result.

Face Mills

Known as surfacing mills or face mills, these tools are perfect for large-scale machining. They present themselves as mills with teeth only on the bottom face and sometimes on the sides. You can use this equipment for roughing and large surface machining.

Thread Mills

How many times have we addressed the topic of threading on this blog? There are articles dedicated to how to make a good threading of a hole or a screw and in these cases you can consider the idea of citing the always useful thread mills.

Can't we use taps and dies for threading? Of course, but in certain circumstances, when maximum precision and machining on large surfaces or diameters is needed, the solution comes from these mills similar to cylindrical ones but decisive in machining.