Thread Milling

Thread Milling is a process carried out on CNC milling machines to create a thread using a rotating milling cutter which follows a helical tool path around a cylindrical work piece. Surprisingly enough, this process has been possible to achieve since the early 19th century. However it has never been a commonplace method until the widespread use of the new age CNC machines began to dominate engineering production. Some distinct advantages of thread milling are better surface finishes, improved concentricity, and in some cases left and right handed threads can be produced using the same tool. On top of these obvious benefits, when machining large items, it makes sense not to rotate the work piece, but let it sit stationary while the rotating tools and operations can be carried out around it. There are various kinds of thread milling applications now in use, including variants of form milling and a combination of drilling and threading with one cutter, this is called thrilling.