Kicked myself for buying cheap end mills, paid double later

About 4 months back I grabbed a pack of 10 HSS end mills off Amazon for like 30 bucks. Figured hey, they're all the same steel right? Wrong. First job I ran with them on some 6061 aluminum, the second tool chipped after maybe 15 minutes of cutting. Then the next one started squealing and left a horrible finish on a customer bracket I was making. I ended up having to re-cut that whole part plus order a single decent carbide end mill from MariTool for 22 dollars just to finish the job. That cheap pack went straight in the trash after wasting half a day and a chunk of material. Anyone else had bad luck with those bulk no-name tooling bundles?

2 comments

2 Comments

lisa82019d ago

Man, that sucks. A buddy of mine did the exact same thing with a cheap 10-pack from some random seller. He was cutting some mild steel for a jig he was making and the third one literally snapped in half, not even a chip. Sent a piece flying across his garage, almost hit his dog. He spent the rest of the weekend driving around to find a single decent cutter to finish.

sage_rodriguez19d ago

Damn lmao, that's rough. Glad it missed the dog at least, that could've ended way worse.