Not ALL cutting tool are bought in the store, many old school machinists would prefer to free-hand a nice tool on a grinder, stone it to match a specific form or angle or radius! They can either be end cutting or horizontal side cutting single point tools, they usually cut with slow feed and speed but do the job most adequatly! It is a skill that should be learned by all machinists, and is rarely used in today's world of 3D automation!
The same cut can be done with a 1/16" carbide ball end mill (standard off the shelf cutter) and several passes at a time using high speed CNC machines to produce the desired form! So you can see there are many ways to skin a cat!
If you are doing a prototype, I would suggest the 1st procedure!
Eric |