A countersink is a conical
hole cut into a manufactured object, or the cutter used to cut such a
hole. A common usage is to allow the head of a countersunk bolt or
screw, when placed in the hole, to sit flush with or below the surface
of the surrounding material. (By comparison, a counterbore makes a flat-bottomed hole that might be used with a hex-headed capscrew.) A countersink may also be used to remove the burr left from a drilling or tapping operation thereby improving the finish of the product and removing any hazardous sharp edges. A countersink may be used in many tools, such as pistol-grip drills, drill presses, milling machines, lathes, and others .
A cross-hole countersink
is a cone-shaped tool with a cutting edge provided by a hole that goes
through the side of the cone (see picture at right). The intersection
of the hole and cone form the cutting edge on the tool. The cone is not
truly symmetrical as it is essential that the cone retreats away from
the cutting edge as the tool rotates. If this does not occur the
cutting edge will lack clearance and rub rather than bite into the material. This clearance is referred to as cutting relief.
These tools are best used as deburring tools, where the burr
from a previous machining operation needs to be removed for cosmetic
and safety reasons, however they may be used in softer materials (such
as wood or plastic) to create a countersunk hole for a screw.
The fluted countersink cutter is used to provide a heavy chamfer in the entrance to a drilled hole. This may be required to allow the correct seating for a countersunk-head screw or to provide the lead in for a second machining operation such as tapping. Countersink
cutters are manufactured with six common angles, which are 60°, 82°,
90°, 100°, 110°, or 120°, with the two most common of those being 82°
and 90°. Countersunk-head screws very often have the 82° angle, which
explains the ubiquity of the 82° cutters. Throughout the aerospace
industry, countersunk fasteners typically have an angle of 100°. The
ideal countersink
angle for holes tapped with 60° threads, when no countersunk fastener
head will sit in the countersunk area, is often 60°; but often another
angle is used if that is the cutter that is at hand, and the difference
usually doesn't matter.
It can often be difficult to avoid chatter when cutting with countersink cutters. As usual in machining, the shorter and more rigid the setup, the better. Better-quality fluted countersink
cutters sometimes have the flutes (or at least one flute) at an
irregular pitching. This variation in pitching reduces the chance of
the cutting edges setting up a harmonic
action and leaving an undulated surface. This surface ripple is also
dependent on the surface speed of the cutting edges, material type, and
applied pressure (or feed rate); once started it is hard to remove. Too
light a feed tends to increase chatter risk.