This paper describes investigations realised to perform simulations of shoulder milling operations on AISI 304L stainless steel using the commercial software LS-Dyna©. A Lagrangian formulation with an explicit solution scheme and a penalty contact algorithm has been used. Many experiments were performed in shoulder milling configurations in order to study the machinability of this material and also to validate the results obtained from the developed 3D finite element model. In the simulations, the material behaviour is modelled with a classical Johnson–Cook law. Some enhancements and simplifications had to be made in geometry, meshing, friction and temperature considerations for limiting the calculation time. The final aim consists to obtain realistic numerical cutting forces for shoulder milling operations.