Best Cutter for HDPE.

Evening, I need to slot a large quantity of HDPE with a slot drill / endmill.
It needs to make an initial plunge of 10mm depth in less than a second, due to the way the machine works while the HDPE is travelling.
What would you recommend, carbide, HSS, 2 flute, 4 flute?

Im wondering if the low helix cutters for aluminium would be better?

Thanks.

Edited By Chris123 on 04/03/2020 20:50:39

YG Alu Power are good in plastics.

By coincidence I was sent a link today for some cutters that look to be ideal for your purpose.

You should be able to Google this

'ALU XP Europa Tool'

Ian P

Thanks, I will look into the suggestions.

I have had quite good results with 2 flute fine grain carbide endmills - these intended for straight plunge into the material.

The one flute is larger than the other, ie, the flutes are not symmetrical around the axis of the cutter, so the end of the cutter does not have a 'dead' center and cuts fully as it plunges. I will take a photo of the cutter and post for you tomorrow. 4 Flutes worked poorly - insufficient room as the swarf expands, is trapped and heats up rapidly.

I used a cutter 12mm diameter, flutes 80mm tall. The flute makes a spiral almost 2 times in the 80mm length. It was used to rough route composite wing molds in HDPE, depth at max was 25mm @ 140mm/s feed, cutter RPM = 3800. I found feeds less than 20mm/s left very poor side wall finish , I suppose due to rubbing rather than cutting.

Joe

Consider this link or the longer ones in the same type.

I think you meant to say high helix. They are two flute, uncoated and plunge type as described by Joseph.

Ketan at ARC

I would also go for a solid carbide for aluminium, the uncoated type. How the plastic will cut using the parameters you are confined to remains to be seen, good luck.