Wood milling cutters (cylindrical milling cutters or end mills) are specialized carpentry tools. Wood milling cutters are used to create grooves and steps, profiled surfaces, T-grooves, curves, mortises, holes, etc in civil products such as doors, kitchen cabinets, tables and chairs, planks, handrails. stairs.
So how to choose the most accurate wood milling cutter? Let’s find out how to choose the most suitable, best quality wood milling cutter that can be used for the longest time.
Hope this article will help you can help you!
What is a wood milling cutter?
Wood milling cutters, also known as cylindrical milling cutters, end milling cutters, end milling cutters are essential equipment for the carpentry industry. Wood milling bits have the effect of shaping the wood surface, it is usually designed with 1 or more blades at the head to perform woodworking. More specifically, wood milling bits are used to:
- Creating grooves and steps
- Create a profiled surface
- Create a T-groove
- Create curves
- Create mortise and make holes
This device is usually made from 2 main components, steel alloy and carbon alloy. Inside:
Carbon steel has high hardness, wear resistance, and high heat resistance to increase longevity and long service life. Some popular carbon alloy series are C42, C45, C60 and more, which meet European and American ISO standards.
Common alloy steel has low mechanical properties, used to manufacture machine parts, small load-bearing structures. Commonly used in construction, transportation (bridges, houses, frames, towers, etc.)
Based on the purpose of use, milling bits are divided into types including:
Ordinary Milling Point (Flat milling cutter)
This type of milling cutter has a flat cutting edge, quite versatile, used for embedding, slotting, face milling, plane milling and turning.
Coarse breaking milling point
Characterized by many twisting angles, the blade and groove on the blade are often used to break metal fragments.
Forming milling point
This milling point is the most diverse, many types of cutting surfaces and is often called by the name of the joinery product or the shape of the nose (fluorescent, plank, semicircular, cutters jaw, etc)
What to pay attention to when choosing a wood milling cutter?
To be able to choose a standard, quality wood milling cutter to bring the highest efficiency when working with wood, you need to note a few factors below:
#1 Determination of wood billets
Identifying the wood billet will make it easier for you to decide which material to choose the most suitable milling bit from.
For industrial wood billets
Users can choose from milling bits made from HSS steel alloy. With a cheaper price, they still ensure optimal performance for the job.
For natural wood billets
Due to the diverse characteristics of hardness, toughness and different glue properties, people often choose a milling cutter made from carbon to bring high efficiency to the work.
For natural wood with high hardness, we should use wood milling cutters made of Carbon alloy from C42 or higher. For hard natural wood billets, milling points made of carbon steel with a C45 ratio or higher should be chosen.
#2 Blade diameter
Milling bits with large diameters certainly provide faster material removal than those with small diameters. In addition, when you are milling an inner contour or concave outer contour the diameter will often be limited by the size of the inner curves.
Therefore, you should choose a milling bit with a blade radius less than or equal to the radius of the smallest arc you want to create.
#3 Cutter body length
According to the manufacturer’s recommendations, we should use up to ¾ of the cutter body length. That is, you must choose a tip with a body length of at least 4/3 of the depth of the part you want to create.
#4 Loading speed of wood milling cutter
The advice for you is to choose a milling cutter with a load speed greater than the speed when machining. Thus, the new milling cutter is durable and can be manipulated more easily.
Besides paying attention to choosing the right milling cutter, the milling technique is also quite important. You need to pay attention when handling to get the best quality products:
- Attention should be paid to cleaning the workpiece, cutter, machine table, knife holder, etc
- Check, lubricate and adjust the rotation direction of the machine to suit the job.
- When the operator needs to customize the milling line to be created, use the engraved line to determine how much work the workpiece needs to run and check the looseness of the Vitme structure, the nut.
- If the wood billet is fleshy wood, you need to check the direction of the grain. Note that the wood grain is always inserted in the direction of rotation of the milling cutter.
