Tooling??

[Skeeterd5150]

What do you guys think is the best all around endmill manufacturing brand? I am curious because I am the only one in my company that knows anything about machining and I am stuck ordering tooling for us and I just don't know. I use MSC pretty much exclusively for cutters and I usually get HSS stuff. I recently bought some 6 flute PM cutters made by Cleveland and I had some success with
them.(Price vs. durablility). I am curious about Hanita cutters. I know the adage "you get what you pay for",I am just curious if they are worth the expense. I went to another a "real" machine shop and saw that they were using them. If you guys could throw me a bone it would be very helpful. Thanks

[widgitmaster]

First off, you left out the most important ingreedient, like what are you cutting with them!

HSS is a general purpose cutting material, good for mild steel and non-ferrous metals.

COBOLT is the next tougher grade of cutting material, it is very strong and holds an edge when cutting harder and abrasive materials.

Carbide is the best for high feeds, high speeds, deep cuts, and tough materials, BUT
There are sevral grades of carbide, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6....
C2 is the softest
C6 is the strongest (known as lifetime edge) and used in impact drills for masonary, and for cutting treated titanium.

So match your materials to the cutters, then scrounge up the best price!

Sources are:
Enco
MSC
McMaster Carr
Travers
J&L
KBC Tools


For more info on Carbide grades: Click Here

[tobyaxis]

What do you guys think is the best all around endmill manufacturing brand? I am curious because I am the only one in my company that knows anything about machining and I am stuck ordering tooling for us and I just don't know. I use MSC pretty much exclusively for cutters and I usually get HSS stuff. I recently bought some 6 flute PM cutters made by Cleveland and I had some success with
them.(Price vs. durablility). I am curious about Hanita cutters. I know the adage "you get what you pay for",I am just curious if they are worth the expense. I went to another a "real" machine shop and saw that they were using them. If you guys could throw me a bone it would be very helpful. Thanks

Hanita End Mills are better for Exotic, and Stainless Steels. Like Eric says about the different grades of carbide, it also has to do with what you plan to cut as to what you need.

HSS is a good General tool material, where as M42 is better for ferrous and non-ferrous.

Putnam is a good all around tool and is priced pretty good.

Personally I love the Hanita's and have a few of the VariMills for SS and Titanium. They keep an edge forever on manual machines and in CNC's as well.

It really depends on your application. What are you cutting?

[rhino]

So match your materials to the cutters, then scrounge up the best price!

Sources are:
Enco
MSC
McMaster Carr
Travers
J&L
KBC Tools


For more info on Carbide grades: Click Here

widg:

you forgot SUTTON. a good ol' aussie company.

[BobWarfield]

Who makes the best end mills?

[fpworks]

The best bet in your situation is to get in touch with some of the regional tool distributors. The salespeople can [sometimes] be very knowledgeable and help you choose the proper tool for your application. Or at least they can open you eyes to tooling ideas that you may not have considered.

At least, they can provide demo tooling to see if you like before you buy. (beware of the magic demo tool, hehe)

Additionally, if you are buying a fair amount of tooling, they will give you better rates than MSC, Enco, etc.

[Skeeterd5150]

Most the time (almost all the time) I'm cutting bronze. I also cut alot of 6061 T6 Al.

[fpworks]

Go to some tooling manufacturer's websites, and look under dealers/retailers/distributors, or call them directly and get your local distributor. They will be glad to help you. (more than you probably want)

For production runs, I prefer SGS S-carb and Ski-carb endmills for aluminum.

For cheaper tools on aluminum, I've also had good results with Accupro ZrN coated 2 and 3 flute endmills from MSC. These are usually available on sale in their monthly "Metalworking" catalogue. The 2 flute works much better for roughing and the 3 flute is slightly better for finishing.

Even though Accupro is normally considered a "cheap" tool, I've been really happy with the ZrN coated Accupro endmills. I had to use one in a bind for a production run, was happy with the results, then I kept it running for over 1000 parts before I retired it.