I wanted to add to this old thread since technology and costs have changed so much and newcomers to machining “May” find it helpful. This is long though hoping you find it useful. As previously stated eBay is still an excellent source as well as All Industrial who has a website and on eBay, Shars, Yg-1 end mills, indexable for alternatives and Kyocera insert cutters are not only cost affordable but probably some of the best if not probably professional inserts I’ve used in my machine shop. Since going into business for myself it’s forces the hand in finding effective means in quality and performance at a cost affordable means which can be difficult and for myself was an expensive learning experience. Much like paying for an education. It is like anything paying for a quality vice. Where I have a Kurt on one machine and a upper tier Chinese on another and I will say there is a difference but both do serve their purposes. For Aluminum I find the aluminum high helix Yg-1 work well. For squaring parts and prepping work I will often use indexable face mills or appropriate sized cutters with apmt11 sized cutters. I believe stamped G2/80 Kyocera which are $9.90 a pack of 10 or $8/pk for 3 or more. These have saved me thousands of dollars in endmills and time in labor machining parts where I am left only having to complete pockets, slots, and through holes after initial machining. For steel I typically work with 1045, 8620, 4140, and 17-4ph for the majority while there are others those are the common materials and typically very hard on tooling. I have found the best results are with indexable cutters including R390 sandvik and you will find on eBay you can get 10 packs of Chinese clone inserts for $7/ea. I often wonder if they are truly clones or original manufacture because they work absolutely fantastic. I use single, double, triple flute hot to 3/4 and face mills. For pockets, slots, through holes, etc.., I resort to 5-7 flute end mills. I haven’t had any luck with anything less than a 5 flute. Perhaps others reading have it may be a result of equipment, etc... I find that multi flute cutters will peel through the material very well and I’ve even had cutters that have dulled and the worst case was a rounded versus square shoulder cut which for many parts I’ve made have been fine so I keep them and run them until they are dead. I typically find the 5-7 flute 1/2” Kyocera coated and like sgs end mills for around $25-$30 each of I shop careful on eBay. If not you will pay $50-$60 each. Many times I end up bidding on auctions and getting 2 for $55 and if I only need one I will sell the other for $49.99 and keep the one I need dropping my tooling cost significantly for that particular end mill. If you have the time to be savvy online and take advantage of larger auctions keep in mind you can resale some of the items to offset your expenses significantly however this may require you regularly shop to keep your inventory up to date. As far as the indexable holders I’ve typically paid $5 to $40 you have to shop carefully and have found some beautiful tooling. Accusize has a wonderful multiple 6 insert 3/4 helica cutter for $75 on Amazon (normally $110) and you can cut pockets, finish edges, square, surface, etc...my face mills come from a seller called CNGX and another is something like 6-48086 on eBay and those used to be much cheaper but now for example my 100mm (4”) 6 flute cost $75 and will give a mirror finish on aluminum. Even my 2” cutters from them do. I have purchased at least a dozen between both those sellers and they are cost affordable and excellent solutions. One thing I always consider is any cutter I use I want even the first pass to look like the last so I have high expectations even for the cheapest of endmills, tooling, etc.., of I make a .25 deep pocket .5 wide and donut in one pass I want it done and finished without screwing around with a .010 pass to finish. I know it’s unconventional but when you’re machining as a two man operation profitability is the utmost consideration and time is everything while keeping quality and appearance above standard. I except even my manual machined parts to look like they were cnc’d. This was the approach I took in finding the tooling we use, finding the most affordable, longest lasting tooling we could bring in house without breaking the bank every week repacking them. Today I look back and realize how little we spend in replacement tooling and the fact we get to put that money toward new toys for the shop means we can progress toward new projects and discover new techniques in machining. One process that used to take 2 hours contouring a part horizontally We one day turned that part vertically, clamped it in with a custom fixture and used a apkt11 6 flute face mill to cut down 3.5” of the part .34 deep contouring it in 4 plunges taking 3 minutes and leaving a mirror finish instead of all those wonderful marks we often see from end mills. It’s finding the right tool for the job, being innovative, outside the box that saves us money, improves quality, and proves we don’t always need the most expensive tooling to do the task properly.
