End Mills

[Al Hobbs]

I am looking at producing a line of end mills. They will be in 1/8 inch to 1/2 inch sizes and ground of solid carbide.

Production will be in the USA and they will be branded with the A/A Logo. These are not cheap imports, but while costing more will produce better surfaces and last longer if you take care of them.

What I do not know is what kind of demand there is among the hobby community.

 

[57fairlane500]

I use all kinds of them for my CNC router, so I will be a customer for sure.

 

[Mick J]

Same deal here, always a need for good cutters for the CNC router. I'd definately be interested.

Johno

 

[Steve Seebold]

I use a lot of carbide endmills in my CNC mill

 

[RaceMechaniX]

Al,

Not to sound negative, but being the devils advocate there is a plethora of good quality end mills on the market. I can't see the business case for a low production run of end mills with custom engraving going against higher volume production tooling shops with lower costs. Even if you buy a known vendors end mill and simply have it laser etched, I don't see the value. True lots of people buy laser engraved tools myslef included, but a personalized end mill I don't see. Kinda hard to show off your A/A end mill when it's at home in the collet.

Just my 2 Cents,

Tyler

 

[Al Hobbs]

Tyler,

I understand what you are saying. The CNC machine we are using is a state of the art Rollomatic and has been approved for the manufacture of end mills to use when producing the F-22 and F-35 jet fighters. It has been producing end mills for the jet fighter manufacturers, for Boeing and other aeronautical manufacturers. But, there is a lot of dead time and there are some people who want a product, made in the USA that is high quality.

That is what this is all about.

Al Hobbs

 

[Buckshot]

But, there is a lot of dead time and there are some people who want a product, made in the USA that is high quality.

That is what this is all about.

Al Hobbs

Al,

If you have dead time, I know of someone with a a few NC programs for some killer toy boat parts like tuned pipes and headers. I would rather have those kind of USA made high quality products.

 

[shoboat]

Al,

I agree we can only send the Chinese so much American money.

We need to get back to manufacturing here in America again.

Nice Thought Al,

Mark Sholund

 

[Eric Canto]

Hello Al. My friend Fletch just got a nice older american made Jett lathe. I am sure he has not seen this post, you should send him an email - He is fletch51 on this board.

Eric

 

[Andy Brown]

I got some custom endmills from Al for the Mazak. They worked exactly as required. Their mills will compete with the very best endmills on the market (HANITA, OSG)....plus they can make them to any custom configuration you could imagine.

 

[Mike Rappold]

I am looking at producing a line of end mills. They will be in 1/8 inch to 1/2 inch sizes and ground of solid carbide.

Production will be in the USA and they will be branded with the A/A Logo. These are not cheap imports, but while costing more will produce better surfaces and last longer if you take care of them.

What I do not know is what kind of demand there is among the hobby community.

Al,

A source of high quality endmills would be good as long as the price is not too high. I currently search eBay looking for "deals" on name brand endmills and avoid the low cost imports as much as possible. On a hobby budget, full price for the name brands can be pretty costly.Somewhere inbetween the cheap imports and the name brands would be great for cost.

For the hobby market, if the mill is a benchtop version, often the depth of cut and spindle speed are limited. Aluminum and standard grades steels are very common hobby materials. More exotic materials are not a common due to their cost and difficuly machining. Therefore the use of carbide vs. HSS may not give a huge advantage - in my opinion.

For my Grizzly mini-mill, I have found that 3 and 4 flute endmills give the best finish. HSS works well. Having a service that can supply custom endmills, such as corner radii, resharpening, etc. would be something I would be interested in.

Mike

 

[Al Hobbs]

Yes, for a small benchmill, you can deal with HSS tools. Larger mills will create chatter in HSS tools.

Carbide tools are definitely not cheap and you will not see any advantage in a small mill, especially when working with aluminum.

But, for the person with a larger mill, working with various metals, and wanting the best fit, carbide is the way to go for finish and tool life.

Al Hobbs

 

[Steve Seebold]

Yes, for a small benchmill, you can deal with HSS tools. Larger mills will create chatter in HSS tools.

Carbide tools are definitely not cheap and you will not see any advantage in a small mill, especially when working with aluminum.

But, for the person with a larger mill, working with various metals, and wanting the best fit, carbide is the way to go for finish and tool life.

Al Hobbs

I use only carbide end mills in my Tormach PCNC1100. I cheaped out and ran some aluminum parts a few days ago with a HSS end mill and by the time I ran the last part, the flutes had cratered so badly that it looked like I had cut the part with a hacksaw. Yes carbide end mills are more expensive than HSS end mills, but I would rather pay $50.00 for a good carbide cutter and run it for 2 years than pay $10.00 for a HSS cutter and have to buy 10 of them to do the same job.

On a manual, bench top machine like a mill/drill, or even a Bridgeport type machine I would use only HSS because you're probably only going to make one or two pieces, but on a CNC, when you're going to make 100 pieces, carbide is the only way to go.