Mitsubishi Carbide Insert Pricing

So I'm looking at this listing on eBay for Mitsubishi CCMT 32.52 US735 inserts and the pricing just seems too good to be true. The cost break down is about $2.30 per insert including shipping, for what appears to be genuine inserts. I know in another thread, linked below, post #4 evansmachine said " X2 for the us735 inserts, they last a while, they are cheap, and they are everywhere." but this is from a 2011 post so it might be out dated.

Has anyone bought from this particular seller and/or know if these inserts are legit? It says made in Japan but I would assume being imported in, the cost would be a little higher.

Thoughts?


eBay listing: 1 pcs MITSUBISHI Carbide inserts CCMT 32.52 / CCMT 9T38 Grade US735 | eBay

Post #4 https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/cnc-machining/ccmt-insert-17-4ph-ss-219166/

If you're buying off of Ebay, you're rolling the dice in my opinion.
If it were me, I'd contact a local Mits sales rep.

My cost from a reputable supplier is $11.06 for reference.

Ebay inserts are a crap shot, if you want cheap then try and buy direct from the Chinese and don't go too low price wise or your buying crap which come pre chipped and badly sintered.

That said, get into the £12-20 a box range and i have had pretty good luck with Chinese direct inserts. The CK chinese branded inserts always are at least usable, even if they don't set any records for life span.

Generally anything branded Korroly, mitsubishi etc and sub £10 a box are fakes and normally pretty bad at that. Sure theres probably a few usable corners in a box, but not many. Get into the £15-20 range and the inserts become very usable for non challenging materials - job shop environments, serious or lights out production HELL NO!!!

That said, the cheap boring bars from the bigger Chinese sources have never disappointed me. Things like CCMT 06 sized 12mm steel bars are in the sub £8 range and there seriously great value for money. I have a extensive collection of them in more or less half inch length increments and i use them in a citerion boring head in the mill all the time as well as the lathe. Very nicely milled pockets, proper heat treated tool steel etc for little more than the cost of 4 of the torx screws over here. The double ended dog bone grooving and parting tool holders work great too, there seriously costly over here there inserts even more so, direct from china there so cheap even breaking the blade off the holder does not make you want to even do any more than flinch!

Worth adding for harder materials and were finish matters i still buy branded inserts from UK suppliers, but a good half of my easier cutting material jobs will see only middle of the road price wise Chinese inserts.

adama said:

Ebay inserts are a crap shot, if you want cheap then try and buy direct from the Chinese and don't go too low price wise or your buying crap which come pre chipped and badly sintered.

That said, get into the £12-20 a box range and i have had pretty good luck with Chinese direct inserts. The CK chinese branded inserts always are at least usable, even if they don't set any records for life span.

Generally anything branded Korroly, mitsubishi etc and sub £10 a box are fakes and normally pretty bad at that. Sure theres probably a few usable corners in a box, but not many. Get into the £15-20 range and the inserts become very usable for non challenging materials - job shop environments, serious or lights out production HELL NO!!!

That said, the cheap boring bars from the bigger Chinese sources have never disappointed me. Things like CCMT 06 sized 12mm steel bars are in the sub £8 range and there seriously great value for money. I have a extensive collection of them in more or less half inch length increments and i use them in a citerion boring head in the mill all the time as well as the lathe. Very nicely milled pockets, proper heat treated tool steel etc for little more than the cost of 4 of the torx screws over here. The double ended dog bone grooving and parting tool holders work great too, there seriously costly over here there inserts even more so, direct from china there so cheap even breaking the blade off the holder does not make you want to even do any more than flinch!

Worth adding for harder materials and were finish matters i still buy branded inserts from UK suppliers, but a good half of my easier cutting material jobs will see only middle of the road price wise Chinese inserts.

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Hear hear. Korloy and Mitsubishi are one of the most common fake ones on china-ebay. Sandvik and Iscar too. Sometimes you hit a jackpot and get genuine ones for junk price but don't count on that. Even the 30 cents per piece DCMT inserts last sometimes suprisingly well.

Exception to not-much-good inserts under 15 usd per box have been fake Korloy aluminium specific inserts (DCGT AK H01). I use them all the time for steel when home shop harry needs to take the 0.01mm finishing cut on crap steel.
With insert holders I have got one very obvious dud (insert pocket was milled in "air", blank wasn't enough big) and two or three bit questionable ones(insert pocket burred or leaning on insert cutting edge) out of 20 or so. Stripped a T8 screw head on smallest boring bars couple of times but replacement screws from china cost next to nothing and seem to work just fine at least in lathe tools.

Stihl290 said:

eBay listing: 1 pcs MITSUBISHI Carbide inserts CCMT 32.52 / CCMT 9T38 Grade US735 | eBay

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This is one of the more obvious fakes judging by the amount of typos in the box.
m/mh =meters per ??
mm/tev =millimeters per tevolutions?

MattiJ said:

Exception to not-much-good inserts under 15 usd per box have been fake Korloy aluminium specific inserts (DCGT AK H01). I use them all the time for steel when home shop harry needs to take the 0.01mm finishing cut on crap steel.

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Odd you say that, i got a box of VCGT16's again koroly knock off alu style for i think circa £10 and there gorgeous inserts, honestly almost must be name brand, there Purfect with a capital P, but can't find a single box of decent cheap CCGT060202 or 08 rad inserts cheap, got a couple of boxes of shit ones all in the sub £10 range, so no great loss. It really is a gamble.

Don't know if you mill or not, but have had pretty good luck with Drilpro Altin end mills too of late. They have proven to be awesome value for money too, sure not the freest cutting, but they have a seriously tuff edge and just don't chip out in steels (they throw a little more burr even from new so i think its a bigger edge hone, but it sure works great for me here!). They impressed me even in hardox 450 and the price point on the sub 10mm ones is well bellow the £1 a mm range too! Yep good coated carbide for less than cheap uncoated throw aways from MSC on there offer sheet.

I do well with the MGMN styles though, the 2mm wide ones really bump the number of parts per stick of material and that can realy be a significant saving on brass and some plastics these days. that said i still use a nice sawman GTN3 for heavy parting in steel, that thing so long as you wind it in hard enough just cuts and does not seam to care how deep it goes. Though i have had shit luck with the exact same genuine sawman parting tools and blades in 2mm in steel, they don't even cut that nice in plastic either for me with alu style inserts.

Im sure genuine sandvicks better still, but the prices are nuts over here unless you can get some discount. Equally based on price one sandvick would have to outlast over 20 of some of the chinese inserts! Its rare on the sub 100 part runs i typically do i will need to index more than one corner too so for me at least cheaper tooling is a good saving that becomes a nice jump in profit.

Mattij bare in mind not every countries english, hence mm/tev is something im pretty sure i have seen before else were. Im not sure its the typo you think it is just turn - revolution in a differing language maybe?

adama said:

Don't know if you mill or not, but have had pretty good luck with Drilpro Altin end mills too of late. They have proven to be awesome value for money too, sure not the freest cutting

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Yup, been also using the cheap carbide AlTiN endmills, cheaper than any usable HSS endmill in small sizes.
Hard to find here any usable HSS endmills in less than 10...15 euros/usd, 4mm AlTiN carbide endmills are less than 2 euros/usd and 6mm is less than 3 euros/usd.
So I get 5pcs coated carbide for the price of one HSS endmills. And they run circles around HSS endmills if you have to mill something closer to HRC60.
I can actually get even the nice solid carbide ones cheaper than decent HSS endmills. (Guhring RF100 U variable flutes with fire coating)
Chinese ebay HSS endmills on the other hand are exact opposite aka total crap

These may be the low rice and soy sauce inserts...

I sell tools for a living and a bit on Ebay on the side. I think that post is legit. The big thing is if it's a seller with less than a few reviews. A lot of fakes I can spot have fake photos which is funny because it's so obvious. There are many surplus buyers on Ebay that buy out shops etc. They will probably make a $1 an insert. It's an old Mits grade that is a small somewhat common but not big user insert. Anymore on Ebay the only thing I can sell is CNMG43*, DNMG43* & VNMG33* for any amount of money $50-$70 a box.

Shop Supply Guru said:

I sell tools for a living and a bit on Ebay on the side. I think that post is legit. The big thing is if it's a seller with less than a few reviews. A lot of fakes I can spot have fake photos which is funny because it's so obvious. There are many surplus buyers on Ebay that buy out shops etc. They will probably make a $1 an insert. It's an old Mits grade that is a small somewhat common but not big user insert. Anymore on Ebay the only thing I can sell is CNMG43*, DNMG43* & VNMG33* for any amount of money $50-$70 a box.

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Believe me when I say that those are fakes.. fake as the 30 usd Mitutoyo digital calipers. Been there, ordered more than one box from various sellers and quality has been from usable to not that great.

This seller is more honest than others: (and most of the inserts he sells are fake so you get good idea whats "available")
NEW 1pcs CCMT9T34 US735 CCMT 32.51 Carbird Inserts CNC blade | eBay
"This can only be processed with some ordinary materials, copper, aluminum, and some iron, and can't make hard materials"
"I don't recommend this product. It's not durable"
"You can buy other brands and expensive products in my store, because the quality is better"

MattiJ said:

This is one of the more obvious fakes judging by the amount of typos in the box.
m/mh =meters per ??
mm/tev =millimeters per tevolutions?

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Gawd! it's as plain as day: m/mh = metres per millihenry and mm/tev = millimetres per tera electron volts, so they are carbide inserts used for electronics and particle physics.

I have to admit I have bought some CNMG from the above linked guys store for $15. Been beating the hell out of them because I figure for $15 they are junk so use them as my beater inserts.

I shouldn't say them, still on the first one. It must be a fake but it won't die in the steel I have been using it on. I figure even if the rest of the box is scrap I covered my $15.

MattiJ said:

I can actually get even the nice solid carbide ones cheaper than decent HSS endmills. (Guhring RF100 U variable flutes with fire coating)
Chinese ebay HSS endmills on the other hand are exact opposite aka total crap

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I second that thought, i don't get why, but HSS is kinda going the way of the dinosaurs, i don't get how its more expensive for a usable quality level? Can only assume in china the better sources of carbide cutters are now so good and there's so little even domestic demand for HSS theres just not the qty to hit the quality - price point us westerners want.

Though as a rule whilst i still have some HSS that sees use in odd sizes, its not something i really bother buying any more unless thats the only size option. Since i replaced the Bridgeport bearings, got rid of the vibrating vari speed for a decent VFD setup i have no issues these days with carbide cutters chipping till there seriously blunt. The aditional stiffness of the carbide is also nice compared to floppy HSS too in the smaller sizes.