Notice Anything Odd About This End Mill?

[bborr01]

[Toolguy]

End Mill

It has a left hand helix to push down on the workpiece, good for cutting thin sheet materials.

[Lew Hartswick]

I don't see anything ODD about it all . Have a few just like it. :-)
...Lew...

[bborr01]

It came with a bunch of used carbide end mills that I bought off from ebay. In all my years in the trade this is the first time I have seen one like it. I have seen left hand end mills but they pulled the chips upward. How do you get the chips out of a slot? It looks self destructive to me if used to cut a pocket.

Toolguy, I had not thought of using it on sheetmetal. Interesting thought.

Brian

[DR]

It looks more like a router bit than a "normal" metal cutting end mill.

The down cutting helix is more common on router bits.

[Toolguy]

End Mill

Those are usually used for routing 2 dimensional shapes in sheet plastic like Lexan or plexiglass or thin plywood. It could be used for thin alum., but might not last too long on steel.
Often there is a sacrificial sheet of plywood, chipboard or something similar to support the part being cut. The cutter then pushes the sheet material down on the support surface rather than pulling it up as a regular endmill would do. I have some of those too, they are great for plastic.

[lakeside53]

I have some also - found out they were "different" when I grabbed one by mistake.

[john hobdeclipe]

Is there any brand or number on it?

[bborr01]

Is there any brand or number on it?

It is marked "FAZE USA"

Brian

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

Onsrud makes bits like that. They are really great for plastics because they push the part down, instead of trying to pull it out of the vise.

[justanengineer]

Without a better pic of the tip I cannot be certain, but it looks like an annular cutter to me.

[John Stevenson]

Hard to tell from the picture but it looks like a single flute high helix cutter.
Very good with soft materials like acrylics.

[Black_Moons]

Works great for side milling where you can have the part overhanding in free air, or for fixture work where you could run the machine first with a normal endmill and no workpeice to cut slots in the scrafical backing for chips to go.

[bborr01]

It is a 2 flute carbide end mill. It runs the same direction as 99% of end mills but the helix runs in the opposite direction of 99% of end mills. It directs the chips downward instead of upward. I will try it out on some sheet metal sometime and see how it works for that. It does look to me like it it might be all right for squaring up blocks but if it was in a pocket, it would mean a broken end mill in short order.

Brian

[beanbag]

Let's say you want to cut a pocket or slot in a big sheet of 1/4" aluminum or plastic. Does this kind of bit let you do that without having to clamp down in the middle of the piece?