The study deals with a new practical fabrication method of various end mills, based on 3D-CAD/CAM. End mills with arbitrary tool shapes, which are generally difficult to produce, are strongly required in terms of upgrading machining accuracy and efficiency. Thus, our tool grinding CAD/CAM system was already reported, and showed the potentials of producing end mills with arbitrary tool shapes though it was not suitable for practical use. To put them to practical use, the system was improved, taking account of a grinding method of primary flank, a design of cutting edge shape and five-axis NC data generation. As a result, the system allows to produce practical end mills with arbitrary tool shapes. In addition, it is found that end mills fabricated by the system have enough shape accuracy, compared with commercially available ones.
