Thread: Indexable carbide end mill for keyway cutting.

I have had some very very patchy experiences with Chinese solid carbide tools especially spotting drills so lesson learned there.

I have one of those end mills in 19 mmm and the tool body is good but the inserts gave really poor life (i used an entire packet on two CI parts) so I bought some decent iscar inserts and now get much better life.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

That possibly explains why the likes of Machinery House sell Chinese tooling, but stick to name brand inserts to fit in the tooling.
It's very hard to get accurate reviews on Chinese HSS and Carbide as most of what is posted on youtube seems to come from people who have been gifted the tool from a supplier, thus bringing into question the impartiality of their review.

Originally Posted by OxxAndBert

The APMT inserts for steel are quite blunt on the vertical edges (or at least the ones I have here are). I haven't looked into whether there are sharp edged uncoated ones intended for aluminium but if available they could probably be used for a finishing cut in steel to get a better finish.

Ground inserts for ally are available, we use Iscar at work.

Originally Posted by Karl Robbers

That possibly explains why the likes of Machinery House sell Chinese tooling, but stick to name brand inserts to fit in the tooling.
It's very hard to get accurate reviews on Chinese HSS and Carbide as most of what is posted on youtube seems to come from people who have been gifted the tool from a supplier, thus bringing into question the impartiality of their review.

Well i think i can help you out with a bit of a review. My day job is a machinist mainly running CNC mills and lathes doing one off or low run jobbing work and repairs. We mainly run Sutton and Garr solid carbide end mils, and sumitomo and kyocera indexible tooling. Compared to import Chinese tooling it is expensive, but in a environment where time is money it is well worth it, due to: Good and predictable tool life, cut size and surface finish.

About 3-4 years ago the boss decided that tooling was costing too much, so started buying cheap Chinese solid endmills. Tool life was extremely poor and unpredictable, i never knew if i would get 1/2 a part or 3 parts from a endmill. After a couple of months we went back to getting Sutton and Garr endmills. Cheap endmills have a place and i use a few at home for rough jobs, but from my experiences you get what you pay for.

I haven't used Chinese indexible at work but bought a 50mm face mill and positive rake square inserts from aliexpress for about $50. I haven't been real impressed with it. It will cut steel but leaves a really bad surface finish.

I know i sound very "only buy brand names" but from my experience the performance is worth the extra price.

Originally Posted by snapatap

Well i think i can help you out with a bit of a review. My day job is a machinist mainly running CNC mills and lathes doing one off or low run jobbing work and repairs. We mainly run Sutton and Garr solid carbide end mils, and sumitomo and kyocera indexible tooling. Compared to import Chinese tooling it is expensive, but in a environment where time is money it is well worth it, due to: Good and predictable tool life, cut size and surface finish.

About 3-4 years ago the boss decided that tooling was costing too much, so started buying cheap Chinese solid endmills. Tool life was extremely poor and unpredictable, i never knew if i would get 1/2 a part or 3 parts from a endmill. After a couple of months we went back to getting Sutton and Garr endmills. Cheap endmills have a place and i use a few at home for rough jobs, but from my experiences you get what you pay for.

I haven't used Chinese indexible at work but bought a 50mm face mill and positive rake square inserts from aliexpress for about $50. I haven't been real impressed with it. It will cut steel but leaves a really bad surface finish.

I know i sound very "only buy brand names" but from my experience the performance is worth the extra price.

Firstly, please disregard the request for pictures etc, the result of the finger clicking quicker than the eye to brain processing lag.
I really do appreciate the honest review and opinion. I understand where you are coming from. The one thing that I did notice on every Youtube video dealing with Chinese carbide tooling was that they were always used on low powered machines and were shamelessly babied, with one notable exception, that being a video by AVE who ran a solid Chinese Carbide end mill in a CNC machining AR400 plate. The result was a lot of carbide shrapnel and a relatively small pile of AR400 chips! A word of warning to anyone searching for his videos - stop now if you are a sensitive type who is offended easily by "robust" language.
I have given this subject a good deal of thought and have come to the conclusion that I probably don't want to load my helical shell mill with cheap inserts that are going to leave me in the lurch at the worst point in time and I think I'll stick to decent quality end mills in the main,
On the subject of the Taegutec helical shell mill. Does anyone know where to buy the APKT1705 inserts other than Ebay? Nobody but Taegutec seems to use the 1705 insert size.