Hard Milling & Cavity
Tools for
Mould & Die
P20, H13, D2 — hardened to 65 HRc. Deep cavities, fine detail, mirror finish. We stock the carbide end mills, ball nose cutters and tooling that mould makers rely on.
Mould & Die Tooling In Stock
- Solid carbide end mills for hard milling
- Ball nose cutters for 3D cavity profiling
- Chamfer & corner rounding cutters
- Carbide burrs for finishing and blending
- Free next-day delivery over £50 ex VAT
🏭 Supplying UK mould makers, toolrooms and die sinking contractors
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✓ Tools for P20, H13, D2 and hardened tool steel to 65 HRc
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Tooling for Mould Making and Die Sinking
From roughing P20 blanks to finishing H13 cavity walls at 60 HRc — we stock the tools for every stage of mould and die production.
Solid Carbide End Mills
High-performance solid carbide end mills for mould cavity milling, core machining and rib cutting in hardened tool steels up to 65 HRc. Sub-micron carbide substrate with specialist PVD coatings for dry hard milling of H13, D2 and S7 tool steels without coolant.
Shop Solid Milling →Indexable Face & Shoulder Milling
Indexable milling tools for rapid stock removal from mould base blanks and large die blocks in P20 and 4140. Reduce roughing time on large mould plates before committing solid carbide to hardened steel finishing — saving tool cost and cycle time.
Shop Indexable Milling →Chamfer Cutters
Solid carbide chamfer mills for edge preparation, parting line chamfers and deburring on hardened mould components. Consistent chamfer angle on tool steel edges where hand filing would leave inconsistent geometry and potential for flash at the parting line.
Shop Chamfer Cutters →Corner Rounding Cutters
Corner radius milling cutters for adding controlled radius to cavity edges, rib bases and parting features on injection moulds and die-cast dies. Precise radius form reduces stress concentrations in the tool steel and improves component ejection.
Shop Corner Rounding →Carbide Burrs
Solid carbide rotary burrs for hand blending, cavity finishing, undercutting and core pin bore preparation in hardened tool steels. Essential for the hand finishing stages that CNC cannot fully replace in high-quality mould making and die sinking.
Shop Carbide Burrs →Carbide Drills
Solid carbide drills for gate holes, cooling channels, ejector pin bores and feature holes in hardened mould steels. Better positional accuracy and surface finish in H13 and D2 than equivalent HSS drills — critical when ejector pin fit tolerances must be maintained.
Shop Carbide Drills →Thread Milling
Solid carbide thread mills for threaded inserts, water fittings and ejector plate fastenings in hardened mould bases. Thread milling eliminates tap breakage risk in hardened steels where a broken tap would mean expensive EDM removal or scrapping a finished mould component.
Shop Thread Milling →Deburring Tools
Automated back-deburring and cross-hole deburring tools for cooling channels, runner systems and cross-drilled features in mould plates. Consistent and repeatable deburring reduces the hand finishing time that adds cost to mould build schedules.
Shop Deburring →Hard steel, deep cavities, and a surface finish that has to be right
Mould making and die sinking sit at the technical extreme of machining. The workpiece materials — P20, H13, D2, S7, often hardened to 55–65 HRc — test carbide tool life at every pass. Deep cavities with steep walls demand both tool rigidity and cutting data that the machine and toolholder combination can sustain.
High-speed machining strategies in hardened tool steels place particular demands on the cutting tool and its coating. At high cutting speeds and light depths of cut, the contact time per tooth is short, but thermal shock cycles accumulate rapidly. The wrong coating — even a good one intended for a different material group — can fail in ways that damage the cavity surface and shorten tool life dramatically.
The solid carbide end mills we stock carry PVD coatings specifically formulated for dry hard milling. If you're not sure which grade to run in H13 at a given hardness, call us — we'd rather spend five minutes on the phone than have you scrap a mould cavity.
Common Mould & Die Machining Challenges
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Hard milling at 55–65 HRc
Machining hardened H13 and D2 in the hardened condition requires sub-micron carbide grades with specialist AlTiN or AlCrN coatings. Standard end mill grades that work well in soft tool steel will fail rapidly in fully hardened material at production cutting speeds.
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Deep cavity milling and reach
Deep rib features and cavity floors demand long-reach end mills at small diameters — a combination that challenges both tool rigidity and machine spindle stiffness. Tool deflection at depth causes taper in cavity walls and poor surface finish that requires rework.
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Surface finish for polishing
Injection mould cavities for optical and cosmetic parts require machined surface finish in Ra 0.2–0.4µm range before manual polishing. Ball nose stepover, cutting speed and radial depth of cut must all be optimised to leave a surface that polishes quickly.
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Mould build schedule pressure
Toolroom lead times drive production programmes. An end mill that breaks mid-cavity or a tool that runs out of stock means delays that have downstream consequences. Consistent tool life and a reliable supplier with same-day dispatch matters more than saving a few pence per tool.
Mould & Die Tool Steel Grades — Tooled for All of Them
Grades and coatings for every stage — from pre-hardened P20 roughing to fully hardened H13 and D2 finishing.
Why Mould Makers Buy From Protool
When you're mid-cavity on a £10,000 mould block, a reliable tooling supplier is not a nice-to-have — it's essential.
Hard Milling Grades In Stock
Solid carbide end mills with coatings for dry hard milling of H13, D2 and S7 — stocked for next-day delivery. No waiting a week for a special-order grade when you're in the middle of a cavity finish operation.
Tooling Advice That Matters
Hard milling at 60 HRc is not the same as standard milling. Our team understands the difference between coating types, cutting speed ranges and tool life expectations in hardened steels — and can help you choose the right tool before you commit to a strategy.
Same-Day Dispatch Available
Mould build schedules don't have slack for a week's lead time. Same-day dispatch before 4:30pm, free next-day DPD on orders over £50 ex VAT — so if a tool breaks mid-day, you can be back running by morning.
Hard milling tools for mould & die.
In stock. Ready to ship today.
Free next-day delivery on orders over £50 ex VAT — same-day dispatch before 4:30pm Mon–Fri
Questions? Call 01732 887334 · Mon–Thurs 8:30–17:30, Fri 8:30–16:30
Cutting Tools for Mould Making and Die Sinking — Protool Ltd
Protool supplies precision cutting tools for mould makers, die sinkers and toolroom machinists across the UK. Our range includes solid carbide end mills for hard milling, ball nose cutters for 3D cavity profiling, chamfer mills, corner rounding cutters, carbide burrs, thread milling tools and carbide drills — all stocked for next-day delivery.
Mould making and die sinking demand cutting tools that can perform in hardened tool steels — P20, H13, D2 and S7 — often in the hardened condition from 35 to 65 HRc. Achieving the cavity surface finish and dimensional accuracy required for injection mould tooling and die-cast dies requires not just the right end mill, but the right substrate, coating, cutting speed and toolholding combination.
Hard Milling End Mills for H13 and D2 Tool Steel
Hard milling — machining fully hardened tool steels at 55–65 HRc — requires solid carbide end mills with sub-micron grain carbide substrates and specialist PVD coatings such as AlTiN or AlCrN. These coatings have high oxidation resistance and hardness at elevated temperatures, making them suitable for the dry, high-speed cutting conditions used in modern hard milling strategies on machining centres. Protool stocks solid carbide end mills in grades specified for hard milling applications, available for next-day delivery.
Ball Nose Cutters for 3D Mould Cavity Profiling
Ball nose end mills are essential for finishing three-dimensional cavity surfaces in injection moulds and compression dies. The cutting data — ball nose stepover, axial depth, radial depth and cutting speed — must be carefully set to achieve the Ra surface finish required for subsequent polishing. Protool stocks ball nose cutters in solid carbide with coatings suited to hard milling applications.
Chamfer Cutters and Corner Rounding for Mould Parting Lines
Chamfer mills and corner rounding cutters are widely used in mould making for parting line preparation, edge breaks, rib base radii and corner features on mould components. Consistent chamfer angle and radius form across a batch of cavity inserts is much easier to achieve with a solid carbide cutter than with hand filing — and reduces the risk of flash at the parting line in the finished moulding.
Protool Ltd, Unit 1 Invicta Business Park, London Road, Wrotham, Kent, TN15 7RJ. Call 01732 887334 for mould and die tooling advice.
