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For those who like to run mostly waterlines and horizontals, a 3 or 4 flute works just fine depending on the shape of your geometry.

Mitsubishi have a 3 flute ball nose tools with all 3 flutes to center (some of the other Japanese manufacturers do too IIRC).

A friend of mine experienced in surfacing was telling me that 2 flute endmills are the only ones that really cut all the way down to the center. I was looking at some 3 and 4 flute ball endmills, and sure enough, I see the relief. Can a 3 or 4 flute be used in the rough surfacing (or any op for that matter) at all, and how do I know the limits for speeds and feeds because of the small section of flute that is essentially not cutting?

Bull cutters are great for surfacing, especially in the up/down direction.  I've used 3" indexable cutters to surface a slope on a three axis setup, and I was able to get good finish with a pretty large stepover.  You're never cutting with the center and it acts like a noticeably larger ball.  The zero SFM at the center is why five axis programmers will tilt the tool when possible so as to never cut with the center; sometimes you can do it with four axis or even three axis setups too, if you have options on how to orient your part.

Ive never done any 5 axis(dream of mine...sigh...) but I've heard that if you must use a ball nose and have 5 axis you should tilt the cutter as to not use the tip.

Yes I like to give anyway from a 5 to 30 deg kick when surfacing using a ball endmill. You would no problem doing 5 Axis Programming.

I like to do a lot of scallop machining and most of the parts I do are complex with a lot of features so scallop does a lot of ramping down.

On 3-d surfacing there is alot of downward ramping motion so a 2 flute has the best chip clearance.....yes I use only 2-fl for 3-d surfacing...

And yes basically you have zero SFM at the tip of a ball end mill so depending on material and rough or finish cut you may need to make adjustments to what you would otherwise do.

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Yes I like to give anyway from a 5 to 30 deg kick when surfacing using a ball endmill. You would no problem doing 5 Axis Programming.

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I only use a ball nose if I have a feature that requires it, for surfacing I rather use a bull nose or even flat sometimes.  For roughing you're going to go a lot faster with a bull or flat, the ball nose hates to be buried, you're using a lot more surface area when you rough with a ball.

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Your friend needs a different end mill vendor.  If you look at a 3-flute ball there is one flute that goes past center.  A 4-flute ball has two relieved and two meeting at center like a two flute.  That being said if you MUST spend a lot of cut time using the tip, as murlin said you will probably have more success with a two flute.

Ive never done any 5 axis(dream of mine...sigh...) but I've heard that if you must use a ball nose and have 5 axis you should tilt the cutter as to not use the tip.

While the image shows the tool being tilted if you machine a slope in a 3-axis setup then you are getting the same effect

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