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Blew $150 on cheap end mills that chipped on the first pass
Bought a 10 pack of 1/4 inch carbide end mills off Amazon for cheap and the first one chipped cutting 6061 aluminum within 2 minutes. Turns out they were coated HSS labeled wrong and basically useless. Anyone else get burned by those bulk mystery packs online?
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nina14729d ago
You probably just got a bad batch or ran them too fast, I've had decent luck with the cheapo packs as long as I take light cuts and use plenty of lube.
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parkerh3828d ago
Nah, hard disagree on this. Cheap packs are pure garbage straight off the line. Run them slow with a gallon of cutting oil and they STILL chip out or snap before you finish a single part. I'd rather buy a single quality bit that costs three times as much than waste money on ten junk ones that leave a rough finish anyway. Real life example - tried a budget set on some mild steel brackets last month, had to stop every two inches to clear a bind or swap a broken tip. Ended up paying twice in time wasted. You get what you PAY for with tooling, period.
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