How many flutes for cutting aluminum

I would like to buy carbide, but they are double the price of HSS however they stay sharp twice as long if you don't chip them. I don't do very much slot cuttinghowever, I do some, and to be honest, I see no difference in using a 2 flute or a 4 flute.

I generally drill a clearance hole at each end of the slot and then plunge. Soto sum upwhat should I buy for general purpose machining, mostly, but not all in aluminum, which will involve some end milling, some edge milling, very little plunge cutting at least without drilling an undersize hole first. Last edited by brian Rupnow ; , PM. Tags: None. Traditional 4 flute suck in Al I use 3 flute high helix coated carbide for AL - stunning. With carbide it's obviously important to watch your minimum chip load and increase the feed rate for 4 flute over say 2.

All of my 4 flute plunge cut, but if you try it aggressively AL I get a lot more life then 2X over hss out of my carbide - maybe x?. If you want to do both steel and AL.. Last edited by lakeside53 ; , PM. Comment Post Cancel. There are center-cutting 4 flute end mills, as well as 2 flute. I had never heard anything about one being better than the other for slotting - like you, I have personally not noticed a difference. I choose the number of flutes by the material I intend to use them on.

I have occasionally used 2 flute end mills on steel and 4 flute end mills on the softer materials and that worked fine I'm not sure it makes a huge difference on manual hobbyist-level machines, but the more flutes the higher your feed rates can generally be for a given speed. By using carbide end mills with the correct cutting geometries and coatings, metal removal rates can increase by four to five times—or higher—than that of mold steel.

The results are not quite as strong with long-edge indexable end mills, which will always leave a slight mismatch line between insert rows. Insert pockets are machined into indexable cutter bodies one at a time. Helical cutting edges on a solid carbide end mill are ground in a continuous grinding operation.

Many cutting tool manufacturers offer end mills specifically designed for aluminum for this reason. A sharp edge and high rake angles are needed to separate a chip from the parent material.

Positive rake angles up to 25 degrees radial and 20 degrees axial are common. A high helix angle , generally around 45 degrees is also desirable.

The helix helps move chips up and out of the cutting zone and also generates an excellent surface finish. The angle also helps soften the impact at entrance of cut, resulting in a smoother, quieter cut see Figure 1.

For aluminum milling a two- or three-flute end mill works best because this allows for larger flute areas. A core diameter of slightly less than 50 percent of cutter diameter is optimum for the same reason. An open flute design is essential for easy chip movement away from the cutting zone.

Surface finish on the flute is also critical. Long-chipping, low silicon aluminum alloys have a tendency to stick to cutting tools. As a heated chip flows over the flute it will try to adhere to the tool surface.

The flute surface must be very smooth to counteract this tendency. In roughing applications, lower flute counts may be desirable to evacuate large amounts of chips faster with larger flute valleys. That said, there is a balance to find, as modern toolpaths such as High Efficiency Milling HEM can achieve extreme MRR with a very small step over, and a higher number of flutes. In a more traditional sense, higher flute counts are great for finishing operations where very small amounts of material are being removed, and greater finish can be achieved with more flutes, not worrying as much about chip evacuation.

Flute count plays a big role in speeds and feeds calculation as well. Although true in some cases, this is not an infinitely scalable principle. As stated previously, increasing the number of flutes on a tool limits the size that the flute valleys can be. Higher flute count tools may require speeds and feeds to be backed off so much in some cases, that a lower flute count may be even more efficient.

Finding the right balance is key in modern milling practices. For wood, you would be looking for a tool with flutes as a general rule of thumb. Corian could be a bit trickier, so we would encourage you to call our tech team at to talk about what sort of application you would be running.

That way we can find the right tool for you! Another benefit to mention about odd number Flute arrangements is they reduce harmonic, which can improve finish. I work with wood — I make classical guitars. What kind of cutters would you recommend for working with soft wood — spruce, linden, maple?

They are great for all sorts of heavy hogging, and really removing material fast. Only now do I have a band saw, but prior to that I was doing cutoff operations with roughers and they just chewed right through. I'll take a sharp cheapie endmill over a dull quality endmill any day of the week. The import endmills are fine for anything but the most demanding jobs anyway. Do your wallet a flavor and buy what you can afford, not just what the status quo tells you. I have the same 20 pc. Where did you find the set, help.

Steve [This message has been edited by Steve Stube edited I've included a link below that you can use. I've decided to order the set just to have all the different sizes and one of each type Thanks all, for the great input I'm another advocate of buying used. They weren't free, but it was quite a bargain considering what I got. They're mostly all good US made stuff in everything from. Probably over pieces including all sorts of formed tools like radius cutters, ball end mills and keyway cutters.

Most all of them are in sharp, ready to go condition, and the few that need sharpening can be sharpened cheaply or tossed. At least in So. Cal there's an amazing amount of old guys who had home shops and are selling them off at fair prices to save their families from having to do it later.

I've outfitted most of my shop from guys like this. Not only have I got some good deals from these smart old guys, but I've certainly learned a few things from them along the way. There's so few people who have any interest in what they did, and so many of their friends are dead, that they're happy to talk shop a bit with a younger guy I'm 41 , make you a deal on some of their most prized possesions and pass the torch.

It's great to see the sparkle in their eye when theydescribe what they used to use a certain machine or fixture for. It's also a little sad when they aknowledge that they just can't do it anymore, generally for health reasons why else would you give up your machines?

I find myself better for the experience. Sometimes when I meet a guy like I've described who wants more than what I think the stuff is worth, or I can afford. When that happens I try to realize the emotional and perhaps financial investment they've made in their tools and I can't bring myself to grind on price. So I enjoy the time with them, try and learn a bit and leave them with their tools and dignity.

That reminds me, I have to call the guy I got the end mills from and a surface grinder, and a bunch of other cool stuff this weekend to arrange to help him transfer some old reel to reel tapes of his son to CD Rom for him. Sometimes you even make a friend with these deals. From what I've found, these older fellas don't do ebay or the internet for the most part. You find them in your local paper's classified section, the Pennysaver, Recycler, etc.

Most of the guys I've found have been mid 70s to mid 80s and are all in failing health. What I need to find is a 60 something master machinist who's selling his shop and wants to travel, but would like visitation rights and was in good enough health to come over and visit his stuff and mentor me..