Lee:             Sure. I learned those in VESL class. That’s an angular cutter. ‘Those two are formed cutters. That’s a straight side cutter and there’s another one with staggered teeth. It also looks like you have two or three different slitting saws.

Plain milling cutters are chiefly used to make flat surfaces; they do this by cutting chips of metal from the surface of the workpiece. Plain milling cutters come in a variety of sizes; on the ones that have helical teeth, the helix can vary        in number of degrees, up to as much as 60° or even more. The helix-type cutter produces a smoother surface.

Angular cutters come in a variety of sizes and angles; some have teeth only on one side of the cutter; others have teeth on both sides. Some of the uses of an angular

According to the different organization of stainless steel at room temperature, stainless steel can be divided into ferritic stainless steel, martensitic stainless steel, austenitic stainless steel, and precipitation hardened stainless steel. And most of the stainless steel processed by the factory is mainly 201 stainless steel, 304 stainless steel and 316 stainless steel. 201 and 304 materials, with common carbide coated milling cutter, it is easy to process. And 316 material, or stainless steel contains more impurities and high hardness, you need to choose stainless steel special tools.

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1.    Arbor-Mounted Cutters: This type of cutter is shaped like a wheel with a round hole in the center. It is threaded onto an arbor and is held in place by spacers and bearing bushings and by a nut which is tightened at the end of the arbor; the other end of the arbor is then inserted into, and driven by, the spindle.

Irma: .        The first thing is to mount the cutter on this arbor. Use that helical plain cutter. And be careful you don’t cut yourself…so use this shop rag to pick up the cutter.

There are a wide variety of arbor-mounted cutters. They are used with the horizontal mill. Let’s look at some different kinds of arbor-mounted cutters:

e.   Metal slitting saws:   A metal slitting saw is a circular saw which is fitted onto an arbor and used to cut off pieces of metal, as, for example, when a workpiece is cut off from the rest of the stock.

Slitting saws have a dish-shaped profile to prevent them from binding in the cut. There is a safety hazard in  the use of the saw because of the possibility of the blade shattering under heavy use. To use the slitting saw safely, machinists should run the saw at a much slower rate than for other cutters; also they should not tighten the arbor nut as much nor should they lock the blade onto the arbor.

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d.    Formed cutters:   A formed cutter has cutting teeth on its periphery which are used to cut special shapes, e.g., (I) a concave-shaped cut­ter will cut a convex­ shaped ridge, (2) a convex cutter will cut a U-shaped groove, and (3) a third shape can be used to cut gear teeth.

All the others parts of  a  milling  machine  are for  the sake of the  cutters:  the table lifts the workpiece into the cutter; the knee  lifts  the table; the spindle  rotates  the  arbor  or  shank that turns the cutter, etc.

b.    Side milling cutters:   A side milling cutter is a wheel-shaped piece of steel with cutting teeth on its periphery and on its side or sides.  Such cutters are usually narrower than the plain milling cutter. The teeth on this cutter can be straight or staggered; the staggered type has teeth which are set in alternate positions on the right and the left side of the cutter.

c.    Angular milling cutters:    An angular milling cutter has teeth that are at an angle to the cutting axis (the horizontal axis of the arbor); they are neither parallel nor perpendicular to that axis, but are at some other angle.

Compared with other difficult-to-cut materials, the strength and hardness of stainless steel are not high. However, when stainless steel is processed, its plasticity and toughness are good, high temperature, high strength, and serious work hardening.

Irma:           Now put these spacers and this bearing bushing on the arbor too: They’re going to hold the cutter in place on the arbor.

For milling ordinary stainless steel materials such as 201 and 304, use ordinary carbide-coated milling cutters and choose 4 blades to mill well. When processing stainless steel, it is best to choose a material with high hardness, good wear resistance, strength and toughness, and good thermal conductivity.

Stainless steel processing can be divided into rough machining and finishing. For rough machining, you can choose YW and YT cemented carbide with relatively low TiC content; for finishing, you can choose YW and YT cemented carbide with high TiC content. .

a.        Plain milling cutters:   A plain milling cutter is a cylinder of tough steel with cutting teeth on the periphery. They can be of two styles:

Secondly, in order to prevent edge chipping in processing stainless steel, the strength of the blade should be increased, and the rake angle is best to choose a smaller value or a negative value. If hard alloy is used for processing stainless steel, the helix angle is preferably 5-10 degrees. If high-speed steel end mills are used, 35-45 degrees should be selected. When milling stainless steel, it is best to choose an end mill with a larger helix angle, and when milling stainless steel pipes or thin-walled workpieces, you can choose a corn end mill.

Note:          In previous lessons you have studied different kinds of milling machines. In this lesson you will  study  the different kinds of milling cutters; the cutters are very important, because they are the parts that finally cut  and shape the parts that the company makes and sells.

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After seeing so much, what kind of tool is used to process stainless steel? With stainless steel processing methods, I believe you have a thorough understanding for your cnc machining. If you have any needs, please contact us UKO in time.

5. When cutting, pay attention to fully cooling off. If you use cemented carbide tools to process stainless steel, do not use water-soluble cutting fluid to avoid the cutting edge from being subjected to greater thermal stress and causing chipping.