Cheap End Mills

I have ordered a number of things from China. Pocket knives,small stuff. I have always found them very efficient,and VERY MUCH wanting to maintain their high Ebay rating. Never a problem. Very polite people.

As for Chinese endmills,they sometimes arrive quite sharp. Others just are not quite sharp.

Quality control is always iffy. The HSS itself is harder than USA HSS,but also more brittle.

Since I'm not a production shop,I don't know how long they would last compared to good,USA end mills. Fortunately,I can re grind mine if they get dull.

I was told that some commercial users (According to the guys at Wholesale Tool) said that the Chinese endmills would cut metal that others would not. I think that is true due to how hard they are. But,that does not translate to durability necessarily.
 
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I've ordered directly from China on eBay a few times. Sometimes it gets here remarkably fast, and other times remarkably slow.

Most of the Chinese stuff I've ordered came from Grizzly, CDCO and Little Machine Shop.
 
1) definitely yes on the shipping times !!
2) as with anything from china you don't know what you're getting till it's in your hand, and if you order again, the next one(s) will be different! Ive gotten great stuff and dangerously deficient stuff ...."just a spin of the wheel "
 
We beat this subject pretty well in this thread and everyone has their own opinion, but I do want to report the results of the use of the Chinese end mills I bought from Ebay. As you know they come in a 5 or 6 piece set from 1/8" to 5/8". I have been extensively using these cutters and for the price ( which amounts to $2 per cutter more or less) they can't be beat. as many know, I have been building a finger sheet metal bending break. I have been doing a lot of heavy milling on this project. I have milled the edges of 1/2" hot roll bar stock, milled notches in steel bar stock. 95% of the milling on this project was done with the same 5/8" end mill and I am still using it. I have been cutting hot roll steel taking .050" DOC at a 1" wide cut. I have been taking .030" DOC at a full cutter length of 2" on this project and still using the same end mill. I have pushed this end mill hard and it holds up. I do use cutting oil on these heavy cuts and it does help. So....... my conclusion is for the price , these cutters are great. they work good on steel and aluminum. I thought when I bought them , they would most likely only last a little bit but can afford to throw them away when dull. I bought 4 more sets to have extras but have never started using another set yet after months. I like many others prefer good old American made cutters, but for the hobbyist on a tight budget, this is a good way to go. NOW ....PAY ATTENTION HERE.....THIS IS ONLY MY OPINION AND MY RESULTS. I know how fast to run a cutter and how to use it. So..... while these are available and cheap, I am stocking up on them. I also have ordered them all from the same seller and got the same end mills.
 
Mark,

I've had the same personal experience with off-brand cutters. I have never done a lot of "heavy" milling; see posts here where guys will take something like 0.200" depth of cut with 0.400" side removal at a pass through 4140. My mill is a Jet JVM-830 knee mill, around 1200 lbs. mill. Maybe I'm a "nancy boy" or something, but I'd never dream of putting a cutter through those types of paces. My usual pass is something like 0.050" DOC with maybe close to the full width of the end mill through 1018. Rate of feed varies, usually go by sound and the tightness of my cheeks.

Using that method my Enco made in China, Yugoslavia (some cutters are that old), etc. have held up pretty well. I have a very good supply of Niagra cutters which are my go to's, but the import stuff has held up well when not abused.

Bruce
 
Chip Maker said:
Don't want to hack this tread but just wanting to know if you have any problems with ordering from China? The reason I ask is that I have seen some things I would like to buy but don't know if there is any shipping or buying problems. I don't know anyone that has purchased from China and seems like many on this site have so may have an answer. Thanks John
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I buy stuff out of China and Japan all the time off EBay!
Shipping is faster than the stuff in California!
I think the one in California just order from China and then forward it to us!
 
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