Why You Need Variable Flute End Mills

[Geoffrey Less]

When it comes to machining custom components, time is usually the enemy. There are many ways to increase your production speed, but variable flute end mills are one of the best all around solutions for jobs where increased speeds and feeds produce a lot of tool chatter. These tools are specially designed to cut down on chatter so you can operate at high speeds without risking our tools or your workpiece.

Chatter
Tool chatter is a common and irritating side effect of high speed machining. When tools spin rapidly, they will naturally begin to oscillate. While these oscillations are virtually impossible for our eyes to perceive, if you watched an end mill in slow motion you would see them shake and flex back and forth at high speeds. This causes small impacts as the cutter bumps into the workpiece along its path, producing a loud screeching sound. This effect is especially prevalent in tools constructed from high speed steel alloys, but it can even occur in more rigid carbide tools.

Conventional Tools
Most tools are designed to be perfectly symmetrical. Imagine a four flute end mill and you will obviously picture the cutting edges being spaced at perfect 90 degree variables. At consistent speeds, the timing between each cutting edge hitting the workpiece becomes perfectly even. This regular impact of the tool against the workpiece helps to feed into the tool’s oscillations, like applying even forces to a pendulum in order to keep it swinging regularly.

Variable End Mills
Rather than being designed with perfect symmetry, variable end mills are slightly asymmetrical. This might seem rather counterintuitive when it comes to tool design, as the even distribution of cutting forces helps to maintain your cutter’s structural integrity. Despite this fact, small changes can go a long way when it comes to changing how tools perform.

The spacing of variable flute end mills are just different enough to change the timing between strikes without significantly affecting the internal strain on your cutters. This means that these tools will help to dampen their own internal harmonic vibrations so they can operate at high speeds without oscillating back and forth dramatically. This unique design makes it possible to run your tools faster without having to deal with loud tool chatter.

If you are looking to improve your shop’s production times, variable flute end mills could be the perfect solution. With these specialized end mills, you can work faster without increasing the risk to your milling machine or your workpiece. You can find high quality variable end mills when you visit www.onlinecarbide.com. They are an American manufacturer of high quality end mills and drill bits constructed from solid micrograin tungsten carbide. Their variable end mills are all coated in a layer of titanium aluminum nitride(TiAlN) to help protect them from the heat of high speed machining. If you have any questions about the tools they offer, you can reach out to the Online Carbide team by sending an email to [e-mail].