Shoutout to the guy who warned me about cheap end mills on Amazon

Bought a 20 pack for $15 and snapped three in the first hour cutting 6061 aluminum, then spent another $40 on proper ones from a real supplier after that disaster, anyone else learn this lesson the hard way?

3 comments

3 Comments

milesj7020d ago

Were you running any coolant or just dry cutting? Ngl a lot of guys skip that step and it makes cheap tools turn into garbage real fast.

the_james20d ago

Coolant is nice and all but I dunno if it's the difference between trash and usable for most stuff. People were cutting metal with hand files and oil cans for a hundred years before these cheap imports showed up. The real issue is guys pushing a cheap bit way too fast and hard then blaming the tool when it burns up. Run it slow with a little cutting oil if you're feeling fancy and a cheap endmill will last longer than you expect. It's not rocket science.

taylor_young20d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah exactly, I've had pretty good luck just dialing the speed way back and giving it a quick spritz of WD-40 or whatever's handy. Been using the same cheap Harbor Freight set for like two years now just doing that, still cuts fine.