Rubbing and ploughing increase the tool tip energy demand in machining. An efficient set of cutting conditions would direct the energy into material shearing and hence selecting the efficient set is a value adding activity. In this work, a side milling tests were conducted on a milling machine tool to investigate the specific ploughing energy on AISI 1045 steel alloy, titanium 6Ale4V alloy and aluminium AW6082-T6 alloy materials. The relationship between the cutter swept angle and the specific ploughing energy is explored. An optimised model for width of cut and undeformed chip thickness at which ploughing effect would be minimal is proposed. The proposed methodology can be used to evaluate machining efficiencybased on maximum specific shear energy and also to derive the specific ploughing energy for minimum tip energy demand.