Hi all,
While milling a brass piece on my new Harbor Freight Mini Milling machine, The cutter (1/2" 2 flute) would once in a while dig into the cut and sieze the motor. This would happen mostly on down cuts and less on climbing cuts.
Everything on the machine was as tight as could be.
The cutter was extremely sharp. Could this be a reason? If so, what is the proper way of dulling the cutting edges?

Thanks,

Dan

If you don't mind dedicating one cutter to brass, the best method is to grind a radially centered flat inside the face of the flute. Or, you can also purchase straight flute endmills which will accomplish the same thing. The helix of the flute is what causes the "hog-in" problem.

This same trick applies to drills used in drilling brass. A small flat land ground inside the lip of the drill is enough to remove the helix of the drill for a zone depth slightly greater than the feed per revolution of the drill.