Why does nobody talk about how much money you LOSE using cheap Chinese endmills?

I'm running a Tormach 1100 in my garage shop. Bought a 20 pack of no name carbide endmills off Amazon for like $35. Figured hey, they're carbide, how bad can they be. First one snapped 2 minutes into cutting 6061. Then the next one chipped on the second pass. By the time I got through 5 of them I had wasted almost 3 hours of runtime and had a ruined part from vibration chatter. The material alone cost me about $60. So I lost close to $100 and a whole afternoon. Meanwhile I coulda just bought one decent Garr or Helical for $15 and been done with it. Is the name brand markup really that bad when you factor in scrap and downtime? Or have you guys found some hidden gem brands that actually work for cheap?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma_webb2820d ago

Dude I learned this the hard way too with my Bridgeport clone. I bought a 10 pack of those no name Chinese 3/8 endmills for 20 bucks and the first one blew up on the first pass in 1018 steel. After the third one I did the math and realized I spent like 10 bucks in broken tools and 2 hours of my time for nothing. I switched to a single Helical 3 flute for 18 bucks and it cut 20 parts without any issue. The key is that these cheap ones have no coating or irregular geometry, so the cutting edge is basically a gamble every time. I did find that some of the Chinese HSS roughers are okay for aluminum on a manual mill since theyre tougher to break, but for carbide you really need to spend at least 8-10 bucks per tool. My go to now is ordering from Lakeside Carbide online, theyre like 12 bucks and work way better than the Amazon garbage. You get what you pay for with cutting tools man.

adam_hernandez20d ago

Honestly I had the exact same thing happen with some cheap 1/2 inch carbide endmills from Amazon. Bought a 5 pack for like 25 bucks and the first one chipped on a light pass in 4140. I switched to some Maritool ones for around 15 each and they lasted through a whole job plus some. The coating on the cheap ones always flakes off after a few minutes too. I stick with YG1 or Maritool now and it saves me a lot of headache and broken tool cleanup.