What is thread milling?

Thread milling produces threads with the circular ramping movement of a rotating tool. The lateral movement of the tool in one revolution creates the thread pitch.

Although not as widely used as thread turning, thread milling achieves high productivity in certain applications.

Thread milling should always be the application of choice when:

• Machining asymmetric/non-rotating components
• Machining materials that cause chip breaking and chip evacuation problems
• Machining tough materials that create high cutting forces
• Machining against a shoulder or close to the bottom of a blind hole
• Machining thin-walled components
• Component setups are unstable
• Tool inventory needs to be minimized
• You do not want to risk tap breakage on expensive parts—thread mills can always be removed from the component completely
• A machine tool capable of simultaneous movement in the X, Y, and Z-axis directions is required

For more information about thread milling, please see our Application Guide