Ball endmills with taper neck

[rgrin]

Hi,

Weighing my options for some ball endmills with tapered necks.  These seem hard to find since manufacturers use different terms. I have to machine some deep free form pockets in aluminum. The pockets all have 1/8" corner rads so I am looking for tools smaller than 1/4" diameter. I am metric friendly as well but part is in inch.  I found something I like the look of from Harvey but wanted to see what else is out there. Hopefully the Harvey link works, otherwise the part # is 775312.

I also attached a sample of one of the pockets I have to machine to help get a clearer picture

 

SampleOfPocketGeo.mcam

[Craig-B]

Have you looked at Emuge?
https://www.emuge.com/products/end-mills/turbine-program

 

[Colin Gilchrist]

Emuge, FTW!

[Colin Gilchrist]

Since you're stepping down the pocket walls anyway, I'd recommend a Tangent Barrel Mill, instead of just a Tapered Endmill.

Check out Moldino Gallea.

Either of these tools would be perfect:

GS4TN7.5-37.5R-TH3

GS4TN10-50R-TH3

The GS4TN10-50R-TH3, has a 50mm barrel radius, tangent to the 2mm tip radius. With this, you can increase the step-down by 5X compared to a standard ball, keeping the cutting on the barrel, until you get down to the fillet radius, and then you just use a standard stepover only in those areas. Unified 5X should fully support this Tool Type in Mastercam 2023...

GS4TN Pages from gs4tn_e.pdf

[rgrin]

I currently do not have 2023 set up and I am struggling to get the Taper Form Endmills to generate good toolpaths. Any recommended videos I could watch or posts I could sift through?

[BSmith23]

You can also check out the OSG Phoenix tool line.  We use 2mm diameter 3-flutes with tapered necks on steel a lot.  They hold up really well too.