Tool Wear in Vertical Milling of Polymethyl-methacrylate Sheet

Polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) is thermosetting plastic and called acrylic glass. PMMA sheet used in the industry to make aircraft and aquariums windows, and flat cut out letters. This research was to investigate tool wear, which was vertical milling of Polymethyl- methacrylate (PMMA). The experiment was done with HSS four flute end-milling cutter. The experiment was applied on two factors were consisted of three levels of cutting speed and feed rate. The tool wear was measured by the nose wear of end milling cutter. The results revealed that main factor affected on tool wear was feed rate. On the other hand, cutting speed was not main affected factor. Higher feed would cause of high tool wear than lower feed rate. High cutting speed that applied with high feed rate can be rapidly increase tool wear. Lower feed is better parameter for tool life of HSS end milling cutter. To keep long tool life, the low feed rate together with high cutting speed was recommended to milling PMMA sheets.