Will this end-mill plunge?

[birchy]

I mostly work with mild steel, so always buy slot drills rather than end mills. I get them from Warco as they supplied my machine and seem to be competitively priced on tooling. I've had the slightly cheaper cutters from eBay and they don't seem to last as long.

http://www.warco.co.uk/drill-sets--d...s---plain.html

[Tenson]

These look good :)

5 X 3mm Spiral Double Flute HSS Milling Cutter CNC Bits High Quality | eBay

However before I found that I found some new old stock and bought those.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...E:L:OC:GB:3160

[martin54]

Why do you need them to plunge if you don't mind me asking? Reason for the question is that I have read that it is always better to ramp down into the substrate rather than plunge.

[Tenson]

I often find it convenient to put 3mm holes in stuff and it's a pain to change bits. Also the standard pocket and contour commands in Dolphin don't ramp the Z.

[GEOFFREY]

Would it not be possible to use 3mm carbide end mills with a 3.172 shank and an adaptor if you dont have a 3.172 adaptor? these cutters will plunge and are very cheap. I use them quite often although I mostly use 0.5mm - 2.0mm. G.

[Tenson]

I can use them, but I prefer a 6mm shank so I don't need to spend time changing the collet in the chuck.

[GEOFFREY]

Sorry, the 2nd time I used the word adaptor it should have read collet. You could still use the cutters with a 6mm adaptor without changing the collet. These cutters are seriously cheap and very good and I cut material up 15mm thick and could go to 18mm, but using the 3.172 cutter. G.