Chapter 5

MILLING MACHINE
 Milling

Milling - It is a machining process of removing metal by feeding the work

against a rotating multipoint cutter.

The machine tool intended for this purpose is known as milling machine

Milling Cutter:- It is a multi point tool having the shape of a solid revolution
with cutting teeth arranged (equally space) either on the periphery or on
end face or on both.
.
• Milling machine is used for machining flat surfaces, contoured surfaces,
surfaces of revolution, external and internal threads, and helical surfaces
of various cross-sections.
 Milling Operation
a. Peripheral milling
• Here, the surface finish is parallel to the axis of cutter and the machining is
performed by the cutting edges on the periphery of the milling cutter.

• It is classified under two headings

1. Up milling 2. Down milling
 Up milling (conventional milling)

• The cutting force is minimum during the beginning of the cut and
maximum at the end of cut. The thickness of chip is more at the end of the
cut.
• As the cutting force is directed upwards, it tends to lift the work piece
from the fixtures. A difficulty is felt in pouring coolant on the cutting edge.
Due to these reasons the quality of the surface obtained by this method is
wavy.
 Down milling
• The workpiece mounted on the table is moved in the same direction as
that of the rotation of the milling cutter. The cutting force is maximum at
the beginning and minimum at the end of cut. The chip thickness is more
at the beginning of the cut.
• The coolant directly reaches to the cutting point. So the quality of surface
finish obtained is high.
 Milling operation
b. Face Milling- The finished surface is at right angle to the cutter and is
obtained by the teeth on the periphery and the flat end of the cutter.
 Types of milling machine

A] According to axis of spindle of the machine

i. Horizontal milling machine
ii. Vertical milling machine
B] According to their purpose
i. General purpose milling machine
ii. Production milling machine
iii. Special purpose milling machine
 A. General purpose milling machine

1. Plain Column and knee type milling machine

- Horizontal spindle
2. Universal milling machine
- Horizontal spindle with swivel table
3. Omniversal milling machine
- Horizontal spindle with swivel table and swivel knee
4. Vertical spindle milling machine
 1. Plain Column and knee type horizontal milling machine
• It is mounted vertically upon the base.
• Knee is mounted on the accurately machined guide ways of the column. It
is designed to move up and down accurately.
• Saddle and table are mounted on the knee.
 1. Plain Column and knee type Horizontal milling machine
• The work mounted on the table is moved vertically, longitudinally and
crosswise against the rotating cutter.
• The table cannot be rotated. It is also called as horizontal milling machine
because the cutter rotates in horizontal plane.
 2. Universal milling machine
• The saddle is in two parts
• Table can be swivelled by 45º on either side in a horizontal plain to enable
helical grooves to be milled.
• It can machine drills, reamers, gears, milling cutters with a very high
degree of accuracy
 3. Omniversal milling machine

• In addition to the table movements obtained in a universal milling

machine, the knee can be rotated about column on an axis perpendicular
to it.
• It is useful for machining tapered spiral grooves in reamers and teeth on
bevel gears.
 4. Vertical milling machine
• Spindle is positioned at right angles to the table.
• The cutter is moved vertically or at an angle by swivelling the vertical head
of the machine.
• Used for machining slots, groove and flat surfaces by moving the table.
• Angular surfaces are machined by swivelling the spindle head.
 B. Production Milling machine

• Designed to remove metal rapidly and to require a minimum amount of

attention from the operator

Types:
1. Planer type milling machine
2. Bed type milling machine
3. Drum type milling machine
4. Continuous or Rotary miller
 1. Planer type milling machine
• The movement of the table is slightly slower than the actual planner.
• The tool head is being replaced by a milling head, which is mounted on
the cross-rails of the planer.
• Rotating cutters of the milling heads do the milling operation on the job.
The cutter–spindle has two movements:
• Transverse movement.
• Vertical movement
Used: for doing milling operations on very big jobs.
 3. Special purpose milling machine

• Used when the quantity is sufficiently large

• Used to make forging dies, moulds, forming dies etc.
• Cam miller used to produce disk cams. The profile of cam is cut on a slowly
revolving work piece by an end mill
 Size of a milling machine
The size of a milling machine is specified as follows
1. The size of the table (length and width)
2. The maximum lengths of longitudinal, cross and vertical travel of the
table.
3. Number of spindle speeds, number of feeds
4. Power required
5. Net weight of the machine
6. The floor space required
 Types of milling cutters

There are different types of milling cutters used in a milling machine. A

suitable milling cutter is selected according to the need. They are
1. Plain milling cutter
2. Side milling cutter
3. Face milling cutter
4. Angle milling cutter
5. End milling cutter
6. Profile or Formed milling cutter
7. ‘T’ – Slot milling cutter
8. Metal slitting saw
1. Plain milling cutter
• Used for milling plain or flat surfaces
• It may have straight or helical teeth
• Straight teeth enters the cut
simultaneously leads to intermittent
load acting on machine and affect the
surface quality
• Helical teeth operate more smoothly
since the teeth enter gradually & load
on machine is more uniform
2. Face milling cutter
• The teeth on end face are used for
machining large, flat surfaces that are
perpendicular to axis of spindle
• These cutter used on vertical milling
machine
• Diameter of cutter range from 140 mm
to 380 mm
3. Side milling cutter
• These cutter have teeth around the
periphery and also on one or both
sides
4. Profile or form milling cutter
• Convex cutter or concave cutter.
• Cutter with a curved tooth outline of the same
as the profile of the work pieces
• Used to machine standard gear tooth
5. End mill cutter
• Cutting teeth on the end as well as on
the periphery
• It may be made up as solid cutter in
which cutter body is part of the shank
• Used in making deep groove, profile
recesses, steps, perpendicular plane
etc.
6. Angular milling cutter
• Teeth are not parallel to the axis but are at an angle to it.
• These are made as single or double angle cutter
• Used to machine angle other than 900
• Inclined surfaces, bevels & helical grooves are machined
7. T slot milling cutter
• It is a special form of end mills intended for
machining ‘T’- slots.
• It looks like a side milling cutter with a shank.
• The cutters have cutting teeth on the periphery
as well as on both sides of the cutter.
8. Metal slitting saw
• Used for cutting splines, narrow grooves on work pieces and cutting
materials
• It has large diameter (over 120 mm)
 Milling machine operations
The following operations are performed using suitable milling cutters.
1. Plain milling (Slab Milling)
2. Face milling
3. Straddle milling
4. Angular milling
5. Gang milling
6. Form milling
7. Slot milling
8. End milling
 1. Plain milling (slab milling)
• This operation produces flat surfaces on the work piece.
• Feed and depth of cut are selected, rotating milling cutter is moved from
one end of the work piece to other end to complete the one pairs of plain
milling operation.
 2. Face milling operation

• Produces flat surface at the face of work piece.

• This surface is perpendicular to the surface prepared in plain milling
operation.
• Depth of cut is set according to the need and cross feed is given to the
work table.
 Face-Milling Cutter with Indexable Inserts

Figure 24.5 A face-milling cutter with indexable inserts. Source:

Courtesy of Ingersoll Cutting Tool Company.
 3. Straddle milling
• It is a special form of gang milling in which side milling cutters are used to
machined both sides of a work piece simultaneously
 4. Angular milling

• Used to produce angular surface on the workpiece.

• V shaped groove is the example of angular milling opration.
 5. Gang milling

• When two or more milling cutters are mounted on an arbor so that each
cutter will produce its own distinctive surface as the work piece is fed to it.
 6. Form milling operation

• Produces irregular contours on the work surface. These irregular contours

may be convex, concave, or of any other shape.
• This operation is done comparatively at very low cutter speed than plain
milling operation.
 7. Slot Milling Operation

• Producing keyways, grooves, slots of varying shapes and sizes is called slot
milling operation.
 T-Slot Cutting and Shell Mill

Figure 24.12 (a) T-slot cutting with a milling cutter. (b) A shell mill.
 8. End milling operation

• Produces flat vertical surfaces, flat horizontal surfaces and other flat
surfaces making an angle from table surface using milling cutter named as
end mill.
• This operation is preferably carried out on vertical milling machine.
 Operating Conditions in Milling

Cutting Speed is defined as the peripheral speed of the cutter.

V= πDN/1000 m/min
Where,
D = Diameter of the cutter in mm
N = Rotational Speed of the cutter in rpm

The selection of the cutting speed depends on the properties of the

material being cut, diameter and life of cutter, number of cutter teeth,
feed, depth of cut as well as width of cut and coolant used.
FEED
Material removal rate
 Indexing
 Indexing is the operation of dividing the periphery of a workpiece into any
number of equal parts.
 The indexing operation can be used for cutting gears, hexagonal nuts,
keyways, fluted drills, taps and reamers. Hexagonal bolt.

The main component used in indexing operation is universal dividing head.

Universal dividing head
 Indexing methods

• There are several methods of indexing and they are

1. Direct indexing (Rapid Indexing)
2. Simple indexing (Plain Indexing)
3. Compound indexing