Ball end mill in steel?

[elf]

Just rotate the shaft 90 degrees and use a standard flat endmill to cut a V groove.

[Black Forest]

Just rotate the shaft 90 degrees and use a standard flat endmill to cut a V groove.

I would think I would rotate the shaft 45 degrees to get the V correct geometrically.

[TGTool]

I would think I would rotate the shaft 45 degrees to get the V correct geometrically.

A cylinder cut at 45 degrees describes an ellipse. That may or may not be what you want.

[Black Forest]

A cylinder cut at 45 degrees describes an ellipse. That may or may not be what you want.

What I meant was I would offset the normal flat end end mill to a point on the shaft that would be 45 degrees so the cutter would engage the shaft to be cut.

[Black Forest]

I will just run my cutter perpendicular to the material. And I figured out it needs to be 2.5mm deep not 3mm.

[Bob La Londe]

The V grove does sound like a better solution. I need to measure the only V grove end mill I have. I think it is too big and I just bought 3 solid carbide round end mills!

A v-groove end mill has the same problem as a ball end mill, but with less strength in the tip. In my not so humble freaking opinion the way to over come cutting issues and make a V-groove is to use the side of a regular endmill and do the basic math to get the groove dimensions to do the job.

[elf]

90 degrees = 45 degrees 2 hours after regular bedtime

Here are the settings for a V groove instead of ballnose: