Walter Harley wrote:
This might be an unanswerable or simply a religious question, in which case
I apologize...

Should I get a set of cheap end mills, or should I gradually acquire more
expensive ones? (Or both?)

I got some cheap end mills in blue plastic tubes, with the size rubber
stamped on a paper label, and made in China. These were the worst
excuse for a cutting tool I have ever seen, and I'm going to be much
more careful in the future. They looked like they were sharpened
(gashed and relieved, technically) by a blind 80-year old, and that is
even an insult to the blind and aged, they were that bad!

I have been moving more to solid carbide cutters, as they take certain
kinds of abuse and keep on cutting. (Sharp impacts cause them to
shatter, however.)

But, I think the best value out there is Cobalt-enhanced HSS, with such
trade designations as M-42, M-57 and such. These are many times harder
(or at leat longer lasting) than regular HSS, and cost maybe one Dollar
extra! Also, you can be pretty sure they are not totally crummy junk.

I got a bunch of good stuff through eBay from a guy who used to sell as
reliable end mill, but I think he is now using "reliable tools" (or
maybe just tool, no "s".) I never had anything I was less than 100%
satisfied with from him.

And, a subsidiary question: does TiN make any difference? E.g., I'm looking
in the Grizzly catalog at all the cheapo plain HSS and TiN-coated HSS sets,
trying to decide.
I haven't found the TiN coatings to be a great help. It may make a lot
more difference if you are cutting very hard materials, or running the
machine very hard in terms of feedrates, with the tool nearly red hot
at times. Not likely for a small manual machine.

Jon