Plastic End Mills: A Machinist's Guide to CNC Tools

Introduction to End Mills for Plastic

End mills are rotary cutting tools used in manufacturing, commonly for machining metals. However, specialized end mills have been developed for efficiently machining plastic materials. Plastic end mills have unique geometries and coatings to account for the differences in working with plastics versus metals.

Benefits of Using End Mills for Plastic

End mills provide several advantages for machining plastics:

• Produce clean, accurate finishes
• Allow high feed rates and speeds
• Variety of tools for different plastics and applications
• Fit standard CNC machines

Key Features of Plastic End Mills

Common features of end mills made for plastics include:

• Sharp cutting edges and special coatings to prevent material sticking
• Geometries with additional flutes and chips spaces
• Polished flutes to allow efficient chip evacuation
• Designed for high spindle speeds

How to Select the Right Plastic End Mill

Choosing the best plastic end mill depends on several factors...

FAQs

What are the benefits of end mills made for plastics?

Plastic end mills provide excellent finishes, high speeds/feeds, chip evacuation, and are designed to prevent material sticking. This results in clean, efficient machining of plastics.

What materials can you use plastic end mills for?

They work well for standard plastics like acrylic, PVC, polycarbonate, acetals, nylons, and PET. There are also end mills formulated for composites, PTFE, and other engineered plastics.

How are plastic end mills different than ones for metal?

Plastic end mills often have sharper edges, more flutes, polished flutes, specialized coatings to reduce friction and sticking, and geometries to efficiently chip and evacuate plastic material.

What speeds should you run plastic end mills at?

Plastic end mills are designed for very high spindle speeds - typically 2X or 3X the speeds used for steel end mills. Always follow the end mill manufacturer’s recommendations.