Carbide Insert Tooling

[BT Fabrication]

Those are TPG's..

And its not even one of the "high end" TPG facemills. the inserts
are standing straight up and down.. Zero rake.

Throw that thing in the trash, or sell it for a couple dollars on e-bay so
somebody else can throw it in the trash.

TPG's should be illegal. Selling Low End TPG facemills to newbies should
be punishable by having to machine Inconel valve bodies on a desktop mill with
only carbon steel tooling.

Even an APKT is going to be far better, and they are cheap. And your life and machine
will thank you.. There is a lot better stuff out there, but the $$$ go up quickly,
Sandvik R390s are pretty sweet, but they are also pretty pricy.

1 INCH APKT END MILL

ive got 2 of those sandvik R 390's, they are the best ive tried so far. but $400 for the holder 3/4" and $22 an insert. but just eats metal for breakfast lunch and dinner

 

[michiganbuck]

I used to have the formula mix data of carbide from one of the USA's major manufacturers. Some of the components are/were very expensive. It is likely that the no-name and China carbides are just junk and would be poor in any shape. We used to make our own carbide end mill cutters at Cutmore for hacking out TCT cutter pockets with straight 2 flutes / no helix or rake angle with very good carbide and for Bridgeport use milling ore heat-treated tool steel, they held up very well and would pop off big chips like a machine gun firing red hot chips.

So I would think that old-fashioned cutter with good carbide and a machine Bridgeport or better would do Ok.