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OSG End Mills vs. YG-1 End Mills

BSmith23

Plastic
Joined
Aug 2, 2016
Question for everyone. We machine plastic injection mold components and aluminum die casting tooling, hard milling 45-65 Rc. Most of the time we use OSG ball end mills and corner rad end mills, 2mm, 3mm, 4mm, 6mm, and 8mm. But we also use YG-1 6mm, 5/15", 3/8", and 1/2" end mills as well.

I am looking at trying to save our company some money on the tooling side of things. I have found that YG-1 has some of the same type of ball end mills that OSG makes, and about 1/2 the price or better. Our current YG-1 cutters run really well, so I am curious if anyone has used and of the same type of ball end mills or compared them as far as tool life and finish vs. the OSG tools? I am not going to compromise the operators quality just to save money.
 
YG-1 is really good quality for the price, also check out Garr. They have some really nice end mills for milling hardened steels.
 
For hard milling, I'd personally recommend checking out Seco... Not in the same price range as Garr, but the performance to price ratio works out in Seco's favor, in my experience.
 
Are you using YG X-power?

I did a LOT of hardmilling with those endmills and they are still my goto. I have not found anything as durable, as fast, and cost effective.
 
Are you using YG X-power?

I did a LOT of hardmilling with those endmills and they are still my goto. I have not found anything as durable, as fast, and cost effective.


We are using the X-Power Bull end mills yes. Have not tried the Ball end mills yet. That was why I was asking. I do like the OSG Ball end mills, but was curious if others had tried the YG ones or not.

Thank you to everyone for your input. I am going to talk to our purchaser about getting us a couple to try out.

Brent
 
For higher RC applications, my experience was the 5070 series ball endmills held up better. Say, 62rc and up. Another important factor, we, the machinists, complained to the programmers enough that they included rocking the table while profiling. Normally they would tilt the table so that the outside of the tool was being used, but it would wear the one point of contact. They finally figured out to rock the table through the cut to use the majority of the cutting edge. This helped immensely to increase tool life.

In the 68-72rc range, the 5070’s were the only thing that would hold up to a prolonged cut. Even then their lives were short.
 
My go to would be MMC Hitachi, they worked out the best for us when you compared price against tool life. Although I believe they have gone up considerably now. Their quick finder software for technical data was 2nd to none. Also when you get a Hitachi tool and it's say a 3mm ball, it will be that within a micron or so.

If price was an issue then I would go for Arno very competitive on price and lasted well just not as well as the Hitachi.
 
Yes, I have used the YG ball endmills doing the same thing you describe. The OSG WXS line works very well but has gotten extremely expensive. The WXL line form OSG is much more reasonable cost wise. I would compare the YG to the WXL and say the performance difference is almost nil, if you can save a few bucks with the YG, by all means do so and don't feel like your giving up performance in the process. I use YG high feed bullnose tools on a daily basis, they are my go-to for rest-machining hard material. YG, OSG, and Mitsubishi are all my hardmilling favorites.
 
We use YG x power bn exclusively. We used to use seco, but the YG performed as well, for a fraction of the cost. I machine forge dies out of finkl fx steel. It's some tough stuff. The sizes of BM we use are 8mm, 6mm, 4mm, 2mm, and 1mm. We also use yg drills and thread mills.
 
I use YG and OSG for hardmilling.
I have found YG to be pretty good....especcially when factoring in price. However.....when I have something that I need a slightly better finish or form I go to the OSG. The rads on the OSG seem to be ground to a tighter tolerance which affects the accuracy of forms. The OSG seem to take a beating longer too.
The YG are our commodity endmill though.
We are hardmilling in the 58-60RC range.
(Full disclosure....I havent worked in the area that uses those endmills for a while....that data could be outdated)
 
Any of you guys tried a CBN finishing ball endmill for mold work, and if so, what was the price/life ratio?

CBN End Mill | NS TOOL CO.,LTD.

http://www.mmc-hitachitool.co.jp/en/products/endmill/e-cbn/pdf/e-cbn_e.pdf

[Or maybe CBN what what MattJ was referring to when he mentioned MMC Hitachi?]

Yes, I have, but the OSG version. Once you get over the sticker shock they do make sense. I ran a 3mm cbn ballnose endmill on hard S-7 at 55 ish RC. and got over 35 hours tool life, and that was sizing a shutoff pocket. Had that been a "premium" endmill I would have gone thru a handfull of tools.
 
Yes, I have, but the OSG version. Once you get over the sticker shock they do make sense. I ran a 3mm cbn ballnose endmill on hard S-7 at 55 ish RC. and got over 35 hours tool life, and that was sizing a shutoff pocket. Had that been a "premium" endmill I would have gone thru a handfull of tools.

Cool, that's what I figured. Mind letting us know what the actual (or a good guess) cost was?
 
Cool, that's what I figured. Mind letting us know what the actual (or a good guess) cost was?

If I remember correctly a 3mm cbn ball was in the neighborhood of $210. They are VERY fragile and chip easily, you must use very good programming strategies. Bump a little more material in a corner and it's all over.
 








 
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