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Who Makes the Absolute Best Roughing Endmill for Aluminum?

crossthread82

Hot Rolled
Joined
Apr 1, 2022
Location
Maryland
I've tried the Destiny diamondback, GWS alumigator, Swiftcarb rampmill, KOR5, GWS ASR-5. All seem to settle out around 50CIM in 6061 for a 3/8" endmill in my 18hp VMX30i. Generally speaking I'm out of HP before any of these tools break so I'm sure they could be pushed harder. Is there anything else out there that I should check out? I've heard of the AX-FPS from Fraisa but they only come in metric and it seems like they're hard to come by over here in the states. I'm mostly asking b/c we plan to get some speedio machines in the future and would like to run the most efficient tool we can get in them.
 
I have heard the Garr corncobs for aluminum are the freest cutting and really like the stub 1/4" and 3/16" ones so give them a try. Also MA Ford corncobs in 3/8" or bigger, the smaller versions don't have enough core strength IMO. When doing production slotting I found TiB2 to increase the maximum feed rate, before they broke, by 20% and tool life, before they broke, by around 10 times so I think it is well worth it even for corncob mills. I am not a fan of rougher/finishers like the Diamondbacks, they just are not as free cutting as a true corncob rougher and lift more on the parts. I still have a few from years ago that I never use, some are even new.

The answer really depends on your needs, there is no one best endmill for roughing so get a few different ones and figure out what they are best at and how they compare to each other.
 
OSG AE-TL-N is probably worth a try. I've been very impressed with their AE-VMS.
That said I've also found the Garr Alumastar quite great for the reasonable price.
I don't bother with the semi finisher stuff, small chips that make it to the bottom of the tank aren't fun, I just use regular flute for everything now.

 
I really like Maritool segmented/corncob roughers. They are more free cutting than Diamondbacks IME. They last a freaky-long time.

Regards.

Mike
I use them for a part where I profile off some scrap pieces. The Maritool corncobs don't grab the parted off pieces as readily as some other corncobs but they are not as free cutting either. I think the Garrs are the best for free cutting and not lifting the parts, so far. Another nice benefit of corncob mills is the chips are not as fluffy so they take up about 3-4 times less space in the scrap bin, if you can filter them out of your coolant.
 
I have heard the Garr corncobs for aluminum are the freest cutting and really like the stub 1/4" and 3/16" ones so give them a try. Also MA Ford corncobs in 3/8" or bigger, the smaller versions don't have enough core strength IMO. When doing production slotting I found TiB2 to increase the maximum feed rate, before they broke, by 20% and tool life, before they broke, by around 10 times so I think it is well worth it even for corncob mills. I am not a fan of rougher/finishers like the Diamondbacks, they just are not as free cutting as a true corncob rougher and lift more on the parts. I still have a few from years ago that I never use, some are even new.

The answer really depends on your needs, there is no one best endmill for roughing so get a few different ones and figure out what they are best at and how they compare to each other.
As far as the MA Ford's are you referring to the 134 series or the 334 series? Also it doesn't look like they offer TiB2 coating unless that's a custom order option.

And the Garr I'm assuming is the ARC series and you request them coated?
 
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I vote for Hanita TC6A0R13005. 1/2" x 1.25" LOC. If you need smaller diameter, they don't offer this series smaller. On a standard 10k rpm Speedio, I have removed 103 cubic inches per minute of 6061. Cutting parameters were 10k rpm, 1.25" Axial loc, .300" radial stepover at 275 IPM. Has Weldon flat, hold with side lock end mill holder. Day in and day out on a 16k or 27k spindle machine, I would run about 1" Axial, .250" stepover and 250 IPM ish.
 
I vote for Hanita TC6A0R13005. 1/2" x 1.25" LOC. If you need smaller diameter, they don't offer this series smaller. On a standard 10k rpm Speedio, I have removed 103 cubic inches per minute of 6061. Cutting parameters were 10k rpm, 1.25" Axial loc, .300" radial stepover at 275 IPM. Has Weldon flat, hold with side lock end mill holder. Day in and day out on a 16k or 27k spindle machine, I would run about 1" Axial, .250" stepover and 250 IPM ish.
What about on a 10k HT machine? That a pretty serious cut for a HSS endmill, honestly I haven't used highspeed in a cnc probably ever and never even considered looking at them.
 
If you hate money, the highest performance aluminum murdering tool made right now is the Fraisa AX-FPS. The testing I've seen puts it 10% over the rest of the pack in MRR:HP. They do some serious shredding with the serrations, and Fraisa just nails the edge geometry. The through center TSC hole just finishes it off.

Problem is, that 10% costs you a 100% tool price increase. You also only get it when you are running everything balls-out, which is not the best for process reliability.
 
If you hate money, the highest performance aluminum murdering tool made right now is the Fraisa AX-FPS. The testing I've seen puts it 10% over the rest of the pack in MRR:HP. They do some serious shredding with the serrations, and Fraisa just nails the edge geometry. The through center TSC hole just finishes it off.

Problem is, that 10% costs you a 100% tool price increase. You also only get it when you are running everything balls-out, which is not the best for process reliability.
I've eyeballed those up but your not joking at an eye watering $260 a piece for a 12mm that's a hard pill to swallow. I haven't seen much testing with them besides a couple 30sec long videos. Have you ran these?
 
I've eyeballed those up but your not joking at an eye watering $260 a piece for a 12mm that's a hard pill to swallow. I haven't seen much testing with them besides a couple 30sec long videos. Have you ran these?

For some reason, I like collecting aluminum roughing tools, so I have one in 8mm. Max I got it to was 380ipm and a 0.17" stepover. Sounded great, spindle meter looked great, but I've never run it like that again because the risk:reward ration just isn't there. BT30 is not the right taper for tool testing when you get into numbers like this.

It is the king of aluminum murder machines, but the real-world applications are limited. Aerospace guys who have hours-long cycles roughing 6061? I could see the savings being worth it. My parts are small, I do hit them aggressively, and roughing is typically under 30 seconds (the tool library automatically runs my 3/8" Diamondback at .16" WOC and 250ipm; tool is ordered from Destiny with a Weldon shank and this is in Maritool's zero projection side lock). Saving 3 seconds in the cycle is not worth the risk of part pull-out, or spindle stud failure, or the other problems you can have when you get crazy aggressive.

Through the center TSC is great on heavy pocketing applications - but you can get that from SwiftCarb on the Ramp Mill or Helical's latest aluminum offerings as well... and you can buy 3 of each for the Fraisa price. Emuge also has the AluCut, but they have funky LOC offerings.. though it is easily #2 on the Exotic and Overpriced Aluminum Killing Tools list.

When you get down to it - the Destiny Diamondback the best everyday driver here. I do wish they did a TSC variant, but if you are doing a lot of pocketing, the SwiftCarb RampMill is great, and it does best everyone on helical entry stability - but it is also expensive, exotic to order a lot of the time, and doesn't leave as even a wall finish as the Diamondback (Swift often benefits from a semi-finish pass with the finishing mill, Diamondback does not).
 
What about on a 10k HT machine? That a pretty serious cut for a HSS endmill, honestly I haven't used highspeed in a cnc probably ever and never even considered looking at them.
The Hanita runs crazy well, and has excellent process reliability because it has aggressive serrations that shred chips into really fine confetti. The Frasia does this as well as Emuge. I think Lakeshore and WAM have aggressive serrations as well. Hanita also has the whistle notch from the factory - I need to order mine that way from Destiny, which is a bit of a pain.

Problem with the Hanita is that they only come in 1/2" and up - I like 3/8" because it fits most of my parts and with rare exception, you'll never have spindle failure level crashes if the tool is <1/2" on a BT30 mill.
 
Garr, Hanita, Destiny Diamondback, KOR...all great end mills. There is no "best".
If you want great tool life, I can attest to the Destiny Diamondback. We have a repeat job out of 6061 on our Speedio, where I pocket 4" x 4" x 1.25" deep. I've had one of these 1/2" Diamondbacks last over 10,000 parts and only changed it because I was leaving a noobie to run the machine over the weekend and didn't want to take any chances of it failing.
That end mill I run at 16k, 1.25" deep and .100" stepover at 400 IPM. It's a beast.
That being said the Garr Alumastar gives the best finish that I've seen.
Hanita...you can't go wrong.
KOR... I haven't really tested it much but it seems like it's great too.
 
How has nobody mentioned YG1 yet? By far my favorite aluminum end mill and they're cheap as hell to boot. I've used one of their 1/4" sticking out of the holder 2 1/8" and it cut with absolutely no chatter.
 
How has nobody mentioned YG1 yet?
Probably because we're talking about cutting aluminum. And every big name MFG makes a great end mill for that, including YG-1. There's simply too many to list.

If this were inconel it would be a different story.
 
I have found the MA Ford 134 series roughers are very tough to beat. They have outperformed all the others we have tried. They seem to cut much freer and so in low HP machines we can still push them hard. Pricing is reasonable as well.
 
What about on a 10k HT machine? That a pretty serious cut for a HSS endmill, honestly I haven't used highspeed in a cnc probably ever and never even considered looking at them.
It's actually Powdered Metal. Hanita touts it as harder than HSS and tougher than carbide. I always wanted to test a 5/8" version in a Maritool Dual Contact stubby side lock on a High Torque BBT. The 1/2" does pretty well for a lot of applications.
 
Haven't seen it mention so I thought I'd throw out Gorilla Mill. They make a lot of great stuff and have an aluminum rougher that is affordable and very free cutting.
 
If you do a backto back with the Garr, you'll see that there's no difference in spindle load. But the Garr leaves less on for finishing because the knuckles/notches are less...
Next time it makes sense to, I'll have to try that out! Thanks
 








 
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