End Mill Set?

+1 on avoiding import sets of end mills though there are likely some good sets out there. I bought a set of cheap HSS import 2/4-fluters going from 1/4" up to 3/4" by 1/8". I tried one on some steel just cleaning the edge and thought I'd moved to "Chatter City, USA". Stuck in a Niagara with the same width of cut, depth of cut and feed rate; smooth sailing.

I'll use both HSS on aluminum or plastic, and try to stay with carbide on steel, especially stainless. I've had pretty good luck with carbide end mills from Niagara and (I think) Redtool42 on eBay. I have gotten decent life out of radius-tipped carbide end mills on steel. Sorry, I don't remember who turned me onto them from this forum.

I don't know if anyone mentioned it above, but chip control is key. If your tool starts running hot and welds the chip to the cutting edge, the snowball has started down the hill. You could be using the sharpest, best-quality end mill known to mankind and foul it with too heavy of a cut in aluminum with chips gluing themselves to the tip.

I tend to go with 2-flute end mills on plastic and aluminum; they aren't as still but clear chips well. I tend to use 4-flute end mills when cutting steel as they are more rigid.

Bruce
 
If you view them as roughing endmills, some of the import sets have some, dubious, value. BUT they often don't cut well, don't cut on size, and/or don't leave a good surface finish. I'm not one of those guys that insists on U.S. made and I'm happy to pass on my positive finds, but I haven't found a good HSS set (though I stopped looking quite a few years ago...). It's not necessarily a bad deal to pick up an import set, BUT if you have trouble hitting your dimensions or your surface finish, do yourself a favor and try a "known-good" endmill before condemning yourself as a machinist, or giving up on a project. Some of these tools make machining much harder and a newbie won't know that it's not him or her. Good cutting tools are usually cheaper, per pound of chips made, than the ones that are cheap to buy.

GsT
 
Lots of good information here, as usual.

The advice to buy one or two standard sizes and then fill in as need arises makes a lot of sense to me.

Thanks!
 
The import sets are handy for the not do common sizes, we found out real fast a bad they are so the remaining ones are used only on soft stuff.

We got a couple lots of assorted from our favorite pawn shop and we dig at the used bins at the machinery store.

We make things from aluminum channel, use a 5/8 x 3 to true things up.

We found that just going SLOW does wonders.

Slower rpm and slower table movement.

Greatly reduces the stresses and heat on the cutter.

Plus the chips are not tossed into the hinterlands.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk
 
Mari Tool makes good stuff, you can get any size you would want. I use mostly HSS, but plan on adding carbide for my most used sizes. www.maritool.com. My most used sizes are 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2”, I have two and four flute end mills in each of those sizes. When I need other sizes, I buy as needed for the project.

Travers also has monthly sales flyers with good discounts on some items, there are usually some end mills on sale each month. To get the sales prices on the flyer items, I had to enter the item number from the flyer into my shopping cart since the one on the website for some items was different. I don’t have a preferred brand, any of the western brands have worked well for me. Buy the best quality you can afford and then get them resharpened as needed.
 
I've been really happy with M42 Cobalt (TIALN coated) end mills from CME here in Michigan. They sell through their website, direct at their location and on eBay, but the eBay user name is a bit different. I really like the roughing version of the M42 end mills and use them for almost anything that doesn't need a really smooth surface. On their website you can add individual items, or multiples. On eBay it's mostly multiples I've seen them list. I'm putting a list of carbide end mills from them to grab the next time I'm in that area...really nice folks to deal with.

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