Halcohead
Stainless
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2005
- Location
- Bay Area, Ca
Silly question, but why are thread mills so expensive? Even single form thread mills seem to be significantly more expensive than their equivalent tap size or carbide endmill size. Is it a matter of markup, lack of demand, or is it just that nobody makes a low/mid-performance threadmill and my sense of cost has been distorted by relatively inexpensive taps and endmills? Is a threadmill any more difficult or costly to grind than a spiral point tap or vari-flute endmill?
Related question, does anyone have a good source for threadmills ranging from 80-pitch to 16-pitch (as well as single-form threadmills for odd threads)? Application is short-run prototyping, materials are primarily aluminum, 17-4ph H900, 304, 316, and 6Al-4V ti.
(They may not make perfect threadforms, but on rush prototype jobs in aluminum, I've ground single-flute single form threadmills out of old taps with acceptable results. Still, not an ideal solution for obvious reasons.)
Related question, does anyone have a good source for threadmills ranging from 80-pitch to 16-pitch (as well as single-form threadmills for odd threads)? Application is short-run prototyping, materials are primarily aluminum, 17-4ph H900, 304, 316, and 6Al-4V ti.
(They may not make perfect threadforms, but on rush prototype jobs in aluminum, I've ground single-flute single form threadmills out of old taps with acceptable results. Still, not an ideal solution for obvious reasons.)