Defining tapered endmills

[LonePine]

Hi,

Is there a thread on the forum that discusses how to define tapered endmills?

Example: if I'm using a tapered endmill 1/4" shank to 1/8" ballend, do I simply define it as a 1/8" ballend. (In other words always just define the bit in terms of the tip, and forget the taper?)

[Adrian]

Personally I always set them up as straight ballnoses as the types of 3D work I do with them only uses the tip.

However you could use the Tapered Ballnose tool type but you'd need to work out the side angle.

[Leo]

I wet through the trouble to draw the tool.

1/8 ball

1/4 shank

Length of taper on mine is 1"

So - I drew a 1/8 ball and a 1/4 shank

I laid out the 1" taper length

I drew a line tangent to ball and to intersection of cut depth.

I drew a line for the center line of the cutter - then trimmed the ball

I trimmed all un-needed lines.

That's the HARD way.

At the time I did that - I was not aware of the easy way.

The easy way is the use the tapered ball nose mill tool in the database.
The angle should be available from the manufacturer.

[martin54]

Well I've once again learnt something new, I didn't know the tapered endmill option was available in the tool data base, mind you I don't have any tapered endmills at the moment so I have a small excuse