Quote Originally Posted by magicniner View Post
Crikey, you must have issues with your CAM or machine!
I've never broken a milling cutter when using a helical path to cut a hole slightly larger than the cutter up to 5 diameters deep. Provided you use air nozzles to clear chips it's a very low stress job for the cutter, climb milling with a very small step over and DOC, it's a quick process too and ideal if your spindle only does high speed.
This strategy also works well for jobs where it's faster to machine an appropriate starter or guide hole then finish on a manual drill press.
The comment was to somebody who has no experience with it. Yes, I broke a few at the beginning... Anyway, yes, some times it is practical and may even be faster, but most times drilling using drill is faster than through milling. It is also easier to drill deeper holes using spiral drill than milling them using long mill bits. Especially small holes, like he needs to drill, I'd not bother milling. Large holes are different.