Endmill Shank Plastic

Mostly Printed CNC - MPCNC Advice
1

TLDR: Do I remove the plastic circle around the endmills I purchased from v1engineering?

I recently purchased a couple endmills from the v1engineering shop, namely the 45° V Bit, and the Single Flute Bit. On these endmills there is a plastic piece attached to the shank of the endmill (pictured below)

Am I supposed to remove the plastic from the shank?

I can’t remove it only with my hands and I don’t want to risk putting it in an vise or press to remove it if it is supposed to be on the endmill during use.
Please humor my ignorance if this is an obvious question.
singleFlute

2

No don’t remove it’s a depth stop.

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3

If you use this type of mill, and always push it up against the collet, then the tip is always the same distance from the body of the router/spindle. This means that your tool change will not need a new Z home to continue your cut.

Mike

4

That only works if you have every single depth stop set so that all your bits are an identical length.

I found it much easier to just reset z height after a bit change.

I removed all mine and tossed them across the room for the cat to play with.

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5

You don’t need to remove it if you are not cutting beyond the length of the cutting edge. I removed one because I wanted to reach and cut deeper (but I couldn’t do a finishing pass or anything). I just grabbed it with some pliers and pulled on the shank of the bit with my hands.

I have also made mistakes and drove those straight into a hole. They melt and turn into a black plastic mess. But it didn’t explode or anything.

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