Milling machines Operations - Form (Profile) milling
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Form milling is the process of machining special contours composed of curves and straight lines, or entirely of curves, at a single cut. This is done with formed milling cutters, shaped to the contour to be cut. The more common form milling operations involve milling half-round recesses and beads and quarter-round radii on workplaces. This operation is accomplished by using convex, concave, and corner rounding milling cutters ground to the desired circle diameter. Other jobs for formed milling cutters include milling intricate patterns on workplaces and milling several complex surfaces in a single cut such as are produced by gang milling.
 

Typical form cutters
 
T-slot cutter Dovetail cutter Ball nose cutter

Groove or slot milling is an operation in which side and face milling is often preferred to end milling. Slots or grooves can be short or long, closed or open, straight or non-straight, deep or shallow, wide or narrow.

 

While they are specialty tools, dovetail style cutters have a broad range of applications. Dovetails are typically used to cut O-ring grooves in fluid and pressure devices, industrial slides and detailed undercutting work. Dovetail cutters have a trapezoidal shape like the shape of a dove's tail.

Ball end mills, also known as ball nose end mills, are used for milling contoured surfaces, slotting and pocketing. A ball end mill is constructed of a round cutting edge and used in the machining of dies and moulds.