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Warning: Cheap end mills vs name brand - lost a $600 job yesterday
Had a rush job come in yesterday, needed to cut some 4140 steel. My regular supplier was out of the good carbide end mills I usually get. Grabbed some no-name ones off Amazon to save time. First part looked fine, second one the tool snapped halfway through and ruined the whole piece. $600 in material gone plus the setup time. The cheap ones just couldn't handle the feed rate I was running. Swapped back to my usual brand and finished the rest no problem. Anyone else get burned by cheap end mills when you were in a pinch?
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the_miles13d ago
Used to think all carbide was basically the same but this post made me reconsider hard. A buddy swears by the cheap Chinese ones for aluminum but that 4140 will humble you fast. Now I keep a backup set of quality brands in the drawer just in case.
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abbyc3313d ago
Oh man I gotta push back a little. I run cheap Chinese carbide on 4140 all the time and it works fine for me, just gotta keep speeds and feeds in check. I think the whole "you need expensive tools for tough steel" thing is way overblown honestly.
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