Cheap import endmills?

[JJDennon]

I have a Taig mill on the way. I am wondering what your experiences have been with the less expensive endmill sets like:

Amazon.com: End Mill Set, 20 pieces 2 & 4 Flute: Home Improvement

Amazon.com: End Mill Set, 20 pieces 2 & 4 Flute: Home Improvement

and

Northern Industrial 2- and 4-Flute Tin End Mill Set — 20-Pc. | Titanium Drill Bits | Northern Tool + Equipment

My thought is they'll probably be fine for hobby use, but am interested to hear about the experience with these.

JJ

[dneisler]

I been having better luck with th Altrax stuff from Enco. It is not the good stuff but works way better than the import junk.

I wrote a short blog post a while back showing a quick difference in the import vs Altrax bit I was using.

Blog Post

[MaxMekker]

The cheap stuff is crap, I buy quality stuff.
Cost more but the life span is 10x longer, the end finnish is the same.

[fizzissist]

So, I've got 12 parts to do, and the last operation is an itty-bitty oring groove.

I use an inexpensive (Note: I didn't say cheap) endmill, and halfway through the first oring groove in the first part, it breaks.

I'm lucky that I was able to extract the remnants of tool from the groove, and I replace the broken mill with a mill of the same relative material, the same relative geometry, but costs about 2.5x as much...using same feeds and speeds...It finishes that first part, and goes on to do the rest of the parts.

If you want to buy a cheesy brand, be my guest. I'm just sharing my experience, and why, in my opinion, a cheap tool is never a bargain.

[JJDennon]

What about the materials or the manufacture of the cheaper endmills makes them less good? I know nothing about this stuff, and everything looks similar "on paper" so I really have no way of knowing whats quality and what's not.

I am all about buying quality, but I want to know what exactly I am getting for my money. So what constitutes a "good" endmill?

Originally Posted by fizzissist So, I've got 12 parts to do, and the last operation is an itty-bitty oring groove. I use an inexpensive (Note: I didn't say cheap) endmill, and halfway through the first oring groove in the first part, it breaks. .. experience, and why, in my opinion, a cheap tool is never a bargain.

[DMF_TomB]

i would say buy from each brand and compare on non critical jobs.
.
make a list of the ones that perform the best.
.
you will never know if a brand of tooling is good enough if you never try other brands.
.
you might actually find brands of tooling that are well worth the cost. better to try and learn and collect facts then complain about a bunch of what ifs or opinions based on data that is old.
.
i find some cheaper brands to be just as good as the expensive stuff.

[JJDennon]

not a bad idea. Has anyone benchmarked tools from different manufacturers?

[Fadal Error]

I only use cheap US-made end mills for light-duty cutting. The money spent on high performance end mills is made up very quickly by the time saved.

I use SGS Z-carb end mills in steel and am able to make parts in half the time it would take with a standard end mill. I use Data Flute AFI end mills in aluminum and they cut fast with incredible longevity.

I would not rely on cheap end mills if they gave them away. I would still be losing money.

[Ed from NY]

Originally Posted by JJDennon I have a Taig mill on the way. I am wondering what your experiences have been with the less expensive endmill sets like: Amazon.com: End Mill Set, 20 pieces 2 & 4 Flute: Home Improvement and Northern Industrial 2- and 4-Flute Tin End Mill Set — 20-Pc. | Titanium Drill Bits | Northern Tool + Equipment My thought is they'll probably be fine for hobby use, but am interested to hear about the experience with these. JJ

Buy quality end mills as you need them. What are you milling? Depending on what you are doing you can get by most milling jobs with only just 4 endmills: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 carbide 4-flute AlTiN for steel and 3-flute TiB2 for aluminum, and a 1/2" carbide ball end 2-flute, same coatings. Use the biggest endmill you can fit in the workpiece for the best cutting conditions, which means 1/2" about 80-90% of the time.

I use Hanita Varimills clones for steels and SGS S-Carb for aluminum. Also some SGS Z-Carb-AP and others from the SGS lineup when I'm looking for something odd, but I get a better deal on the Varimills and their 1/2" ones have been my workhorse. Their 1/8"s are cheap enough that I do not have to worry about snapping them on occasion (which is annoying when it happens with a Z-Carb-AP) and you will need a very major crash to damage their 1/2" (differently than the S-Carbs which will chip easily if you mess up).

I can not really imagine finding use for a set of endmills that goes by 1/16's. I would much rather have 3 or 4 quality carbide endmills in the appropriate configuration (geometry/coating) for the application in question.

EDIT: Could not really find a use for 2-flute endmills either. They have to be fed slower than the 3-flutes, and the SGS S-Carbs are virtually chatter free. I do however use extensive coolant on aluminum, so the one reason I use 3-flutes is because the 4-flutes I tried had a lot of high frequency chatter. I gave up on experimenting and stuck with the S-Carbs which work very well for that.

[UUU]

Good tools are so much better.

I'd be careful about going too big in your Taig. A 1/2" cutter is quite a mighty thing - sure you'd need a major crash to damage it - you'd just damage the mill instead.

[rowbare]

3/8" is the biggest that the Taig ER-16 can handle without getting special end mill holders like those made by A2Z CNC. In any case there isn't really the power or the rigidity to do a good job with a larger cutter.

bob

[Ed from NY]

Originally Posted by rowbare 3/8" is the biggest that the Taig ER-16 can handle without getting special end mill holders like those made by A2Z CNC. In any case there isn't really the power or the rigidity to do a good job with a larger cutter. bob

Sorry, not familiar with the Taig