In the last few years I have been using solid carbide endmills more
and more. They work great in the CNC mill, the machine is rigid and
the toolholders hold the cutters with just a couple tenths runout.
They last very long and the ones for aluminum allow me to run the
spindle flat out at 7500 RPM for many of the cutters. Compared to HSS
cutters they are a bargain because of tool life and cutting speed. In
fact, the carbide cutters are so good now that they even work well on
the Bridgeport. The Bridgeport mill is not near as rigid and the
collets run out a little more than the Fadal but the cutters don't
chip the way they used to. I am very impressed and am getting to the
point where I am starting to really dislike HSS for endmills and
spotting drills. Just thought I'd pass my exerience along.
Eric

On Wednesday, January 6, 2016 at 2:15:29 PM UTC-8, wrote:
In the last few years I have been using solid carbide endmills more
and more. They work great in the CNC mill, the machine is rigid and
the toolholders hold the cutters with just a couple tenths runout.
They last very long and the ones for aluminum allow me to run the
spindle flat out at 7500 RPM for many of the cutters. Compared to HSS
cutters they are a bargain because of tool life and cutting speed. In
fact, the carbide cutters are so good now that they even work well on
the Bridgeport. The Bridgeport mill is not near as rigid and the
collets run out a little more than the Fadal but the cutters don't
chip the way they used to. I am very impressed and am getting to the
point where I am starting to really dislike HSS for endmills and
spotting drills. Just thought I'd pass my exerience along.
Eric

The question is why did it take you so long to figure out something so basic?

On the plus side Uncle Loud still hasn't figured this out.

Who makes the carbide endmills you're using?

Hul

wrote:
In the last few years I have been using solid carbide endmills more
and more. They work great in the CNC mill, the machine is rigid and
the toolholders hold the cutters with just a couple tenths runout.
They last very long and the ones for aluminum allow me to run the
spindle flat out at 7500 RPM for many of the cutters. Compared to HSS
cutters they are a bargain because of tool life and cutting speed. In
fact, the carbide cutters are so good now that they even work well on
the Bridgeport. The Bridgeport mill is not near as rigid and the
collets run out a little more than the Fadal but the cutters don't
chip the way they used to. I am very impressed and am getting to the
point where I am starting to really dislike HSS for endmills and
spotting drills. Just thought I'd pass my exerience along.
Eric

On Fri, 8 Jan 2016 22:52:10 +0000 (UTC), Hul Tytus
wrote:

Who makes the carbide endmills you're using?

Hul

wrote:
In the last few years I have been using solid carbide endmills more
and more. They work great in the CNC mill, the machine is rigid and
the toolholders hold the cutters with just a couple tenths runout.
They last very long and the ones for aluminum allow me to run the
spindle flat out at 7500 RPM for many of the cutters. Compared to HSS
cutters they are a bargain because of tool life and cutting speed. In
fact, the carbide cutters are so good now that they even work well on
the Bridgeport. The Bridgeport mill is not near as rigid and the
collets run out a little more than the Fadal but the cutters don't
chip the way they used to. I am very impressed and am getting to the
point where I am starting to really dislike HSS for endmills and
spotting drills. Just thought I'd pass my exerience along.
Eric
Greetings Hul,
I use several brands. A local to me brand is Swift Tool. They make
some pretty good endmills for aluminum. But MSC and Enco and Western
Tool all sell many different brands. Any that are made in Japan or the
USA should be OK, at least they have been for me. Really it's just the
advances made in the last decade or so in solid carbide manufacturing
that have made cutters so much better across the board. There are
companies that make the blanks that other companies grind into cutters
so even cutters made by a small outfit can be really high quality
because of the high quality blanks they buy. By the way, it's easier
to make posts more coherent by not top posting replies.
Eric

On Saturday, January 9, 2016 at 3:55:32 PM UTC-5, wrote:
By the way, it's easier
to make posts more coherent by not top posting replies.
Eric

It really does not make much difference to me.
if the reply is top posted, I can usually read it and remember what the original message was ( assuming the reply is to a message posted in the last week). If the reply is to a long message, I usually scan down to the new material and do not bother to read the previous posts.

What I really dislike is scanning down to the new material and finding it just says " Me too ". Surely if all that is being said is " me too ", it should be top posted. Obviously I think top posting is a valid choice, but sometimes it is better to bottom post. In this case bottom posting seemed the best.

Dan