Annular cutter

An annular cutter having a body provided with a generally cylindrical side wall, said side wall having a plurality of circumferentially spaced teeth around its lower end and a plurality of spiral flutes around its outer periphery extending upwardly from between the successive teeth, each tooth having at least one radially extending cutting edge, there being gullets extending radially outwardly from the inner periphery of the side wall to said flutes between successive teeth to facilitate the discharge of chips cut by said cutting edges radially outwardly and upwardly into said flutes, each gullet having a radially extending trailing face extending upwardly from the radially inner portion of each cutting edge, each tooth having a radially inner back off face inclining downwardly and radially outwardly and an outer back off face inclining downwardly and radially inwardly, said back off faces intersecting in a sharp crest defined by a line which extends circumferentially rearwardly from the front face of each tooth, said crest, when the cutter is rotated and advanced into the surface of a workpiece, initiates the cutting action by forming a V-shaped groove in said surface, the inner periphery of each tooth being relieved in a radially outward direction to provide a circumferentially extending radial clearance space between the inner periphery of the tooth and the central slug formed in the workpiece by the cutter, said clearance space extending rearwardly from a generally vertically extending line spaced rearwardly from the line of intersection of said inner periphery and the trailing face of each gullet, the inner peripheral surface of each tooth between said vertically extending line and said line of intersection forming a margin therebetween having a circumferential width of between 0.002" to 0.040", said margins forming a segments of a cylindrical surface concentric with the central axis of the cutter, the inner periphery of each tooth being relieved such that said clearance space is progressively wider radially in a circumferentially rearward direction and extends rearwardly on each tooth to the next successive rearward gullet.