A tapered end mill cuts a wall that is not perpendicular to the floor. That is what draft angles on injection molds and die cavities need, and it is why these tools live in mold shops: one pass produces the finished angled wall instead of a stepped approximation that then has to be blended by hand.
These are cobalt high-speed steel, not solid carbide. Cobalt gives up some of the hardness and speed of carbide and buys back toughness, which matters on a tapered tool: the tip is the narrowest part of the cutter and takes the least favorable geometry, so a tool that flexes before it fractures survives interruptions and marginal setups that would chip a carbide one. On a manual mill or an older machine without the rigidity for carbide, cobalt is usually the right call rather than the cheap one.
What is in this range
Included taper: 1°, 2°, 3°, 5°, 7°, 10°, 15° and 20°
Configuration: single end, 30° helix, center cutting
Flutes: 2, 3 and 4
Finishes: bright (uncoated), TiN-V, TiCN-PG and TiAlN-HC
Origin: made in the USA by HTC Mfg.
Center cutting matters here more than on a straight tool: it lets you plunge to depth at the start of a cavity rather than entering from an existing hole, which on a tapered wall is often the only practical way in.
