Brought home a used G0704 to get my feet wet...

I use the speed tiger 5 packs for 1/16 2 flute and 1/16 ball nose. They work fine in my cnc mill and the multi pack price is good for an end mill with AlTiBN coating. You pay an extra buck or two per end mill for that. I use them on titanium, stainless, and other steels. Bright finish is best for aluminum but you can use the wrong coating tools carefully with mist or flood coolant to keep the build up down.

There are better brands but you'll have to deal with sifting through a tool supplier like Suncoast and waiting for shipping and I doubt the price will be any better per end mill.

For larger end mills you have a whole lot of choices in brand, but I'd say most (not all) of Speed Tiger's 5 packs are good price to performance ratio. Good enough for light production, you can buy them 5 at a time and don't have to deal with a tool supplier. Grab them right off Amazon. Almost all of us will break them from doing something stupid long before the flutes give out.

Less than $8 for 1/4" end mills with a good coating I would call quite cheap today.

Lakeshore Carbide wants $12 for stub 1/4" bright finish end mills and $14 coated, if you want a little more guaranteed quality.
 
Mr Mike said:
Hello..

Any particular brand you like..? Do they last longer or they cut better & cleaner...?

When you say 2 flute for slot cutting do you mean like a key way..? do they plunge cut as well..?

I bought some 4 flute HSS Speed Tiger 5 packs, they seem a bit pricy, Id like to know the brands not to buy based on quality. End Mills probably are an area where its not always you get what you pay for.

View attachment 498405

Mike..
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I like Niagra Cutters
 
Advil said:
I use the speed tiger 5 packs for 1/16 2 flute and 1/16 ball nose. They work fine in my cnc mill and the multi pack price is good for an end mill with AlTiBN coating. You pay an extra buck or two per end mill for that. I use them on titanium, stainless, and other steels. Bright finish is best for aluminum but you can use the wrong coating tools carefully with mist or flood coolant to keep the build up down.

There are better brands but you'll have to deal with sifting through a tool supplier like Suncoast and waiting for shipping and I doubt the price will be any better per end mill.

For larger end mills you have a whole lot of choices in brand, but I'd say most (not all) of Speed Tiger's 5 packs are good price to performance ratio. Good enough for light production, you can buy them 5 at a time and don't have to deal with a tool supplier. Grab them right off Amazon. Almost all of us will break them from doing something stupid long before the flutes give out.

Less than $8 for 1/4" end mills with a good coating I would call quite cheap today.

Lakeshore Carbide wants $12 for stub 1/4" bright finish end mills and $14 coated, if you want a little more guaranteed quality.
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Hello Sir.
Where are you buying the lakeshore endmill from, $25.00 for a 1/4" Variable flute on their website, says it basically eliminates harmonics.

This is the set I got to cut my T-Nut for my lathe, was this the wrong choice...?
1722393100987.png

I also have some HSS 1/4" & 3/8
1722393877325.png

Got some roughing ones....
1722393994736.png
What other ones do you recommend I try..?

Thanks Mike..
 
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Why not use what you already bought? They seem perfectly fine. You can easily get lost in cutter recommendations and end up with a storage problem and greatly reduced bank account :)
Feeds and speeds are all well and good too but generally on a manual machine you can't crank the X axis fast enough per the charts. You need to e.g. run the 1/4" at 1800-2000 rpm and then feed until you get vibration then slow down the feed. No more than .125 width of cut, depth you will need to play with, I recommend in .1" increments.
You will learn to listen to your machine, it will happily tell you if you are pushing too hard. At the same time don't crawl along either, it just dulls the cutter.

Gerrit
 
I've been pretty happy with All Industrial , for consumables and some tooling. Decent prices, and they stock quality brand names along with cheaper no name imports, but their cheaper stuff still seems to be decent. They put a lot of stuff on sale and do free shipping over $75 for most items. They are in Southern California so stuff gets to me pretty quick. I imagine they would get stuff over the hill to you pretty fast as well.
 
gerritv said:
Why not use what you already bought? They seem perfectly fine. You can easily get lost in cutter recommendations and end up with a storage problem and greatly reduced bank account :)
Feeds and speeds are all well and good too but generally on a manual machine you can't crank the X axis fast enough per the charts. You need to e.g. run the 1/4" at 1800-2000 rpm and then feed until you get vibration then slow down the feed. No more than .125 width of cut, depth you will need to play with, I recommend in .1" increments.
You will learn to listen to your machine, it will happily tell you if you are pushing too hard. At the same time don't crawl along either, it just dulls the cutter.

Gerrit
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Hi Gerrit.. thanks again for making that video, that was above and beyond Sir.

Best answer -->I'm just preparing and making sure I have enough on hand to do some test cuts, break a few and - then when I get up the courage I'd like to have what I need on hand to attempt my first real project "T-Nut" using the proper end mill.

I'm well over a month before this Mill is back together and ready to run, If possible I would like to have everything needed on hand when it's ready to go, now's a good time to spend a few extra bucks and just torture some end mills. :)

lol You already answered one of my next Questions, 1/4" end mill 1800 to 2000 Rpm and find a good pace.. thanks.

I'm going to get a few of the AliExpress End Mills too..

Thanks Mike..
 
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Aaron_W said:
I've been pretty happy with All Industrial , for consumables and some tooling. Decent prices, and they stock quality brand names along with cheaper no name imports, but their cheaper stuff still seems to be decent. They put a lot of stuff on sale and do free shipping over $75 for most items. They are in Southern California so stuff gets to me pretty quick. I imagine they would get stuff over the hill to you pretty fast as well.
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Yes Sir, great minds think alike - good place to buy from..

Just got this clamp set from them on their forth of July sale, easy to talk to on the phone too. of the hand full of items I've bought some get here quick some item slow, I mostly buy their house brand - Colton Stuff.

I've been buying odds and ends from Shars, Accurize, All industrial & couple others.

Mill Clamp Set.jpg

Have a good evening Mike...
 
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Those all look just fine to get started with! The Speed Tiger set is probably a great all around end mill.

The Lakeshore site has more than just the expensive variable helix. The ones I mentioned were stub length regular 4 flute and are much cheaper.
All Industrial is a great place to buy from. So is Suncoast when you need something name brand like YG-1.

You might want some cheap short flute length 1/8" end mills to play with and break also. These don't look bad for a few to play with and if they're junk you aren't out much. If they aren't junk and the TiAlN coating is good you'll have them for years:

I would have recommended them from All Industrial, but they were out of their short double end ones.

As you collect more end mills, consider getting some stub length in 1/4 and even 5/16. Short flute length, less stickout, more rigidity.

Skip the Ali Express end mills. You don't know how to guess what's good yet, and very little from Ali is good. Go with what you've got there with the Speed Tiger, as well as others people have mentioned: Niagara, HTC, Lakeshore Carbide, All Industrial's brand...

While I think you're fine for starters to play with I wouldn't get any more of the sisona or HHIP for now. I might get a cheap vice or parallels from HHIP, but not cutting tools.
 
Mr Mike said:
HI..
What size's do you recommend I should try, Ill get a couple and try them out... I like how on their website they have Feed & Speed rates listed.

Thanks for the heads up.. Mike
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Keep in mind I am not trying to sell end mills Mike, you asked what I liked. I have bought some cheep end mills and I am almost always disappointed, Niagra is a good quality tool and still in what I consider a reasonable price range. If you buy good quality end mills for hobby work they will last a very long time.

I have everything from 1/8" to 3/4" sizes in the Niagra brand and a mixture of materials including HSS and Carbide, all have provided good and reliable service.

I Also like Cleveland End Mills but they tend to be a bit pricier.

34746_1.jpeg
this end mill is good where you are cutting alloys like 300 series stainless and really need it to clear the chips.

34747_1.jpeg
I like this end mill for side milling where I need to remove more material because it doesn't deflect so much, no spring pass required.

gerritv said:
Why not use what you already bought? They seem perfectly fine. You can easily get lost in cutter recommendations and end up with a storage problem and greatly reduced bank account :)
Feeds and speeds are all well and good too but generally on a manual machine you can't crank the X axis fast enough per the charts. You need to e.g. run the 1/4" at 1800-2000 rpm and then feed until you get vibration then slow down the feed. No more than .125 width of cut, depth you will need to play with, I recommend in .1" increments.
You will learn to listen to your machine, it will happily tell you if you are pushing too hard. At the same time don't crawl along either, it just dulls the cutter.

Gerrit
Click to expand...
I have a pretty good selection of milling tools, I like having options. When I started, years ago, I thought 2 or three sizes would suffice and if you are operating with a limited budget you can make that work. I have a drawer full of cutters, many I have had for years and use often, some are rarely looked at and some are like fire extinguishers (don't need them often but when I do nothing else will work and not having them stops the project). I do not advocate going out and buying one of everything immediately, over time you'll figure out what you want and need (not always the same) and you'll collect them as you go.
 
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