best inserts

Good evening folks

First apologies I am sure this subject has come up before but could anyone based on experience, recommend decent inserts ?

Depending on the style and geometry of your insert holder the answers will vary. I have some holders that take a diamond shape tip and use DCMT**** for general use and DCGT**** for aluminium and light work on steels. The difference is "MT" is a moulded tip and "GT" is a ground tip. Other opinions are available. Chris. The GT gives an excellent finish but not good for heavy metal removal.

Hi Chris

Thanks for that very useful, however I was wondering if the quality depends on the manufacturer ! I have in the past bought packets of ten at a reasonable cost but the quality seems "variable", and i am wondering if a particular supplier supplies decent inserts ?

Quality does vary. Tips are made either from virgin carbide, unused new carbide and bonds, or recycled carbide. Recycled can be good if the manufacturer takes proper control tests but most are from India or China with no controls. There are plenty of European manufacturers, Sandvik, Kenemetal, Seco and Japanese Mitsubishi Carbide etc. There are numerous threads on this forum of people's recommendations and views.

Hi Alan,

I bought cheap inserts at an Exhibition that turned out to be a poor deal; they were misshapen, probably manufacturing rejects, rather than weak.

I've also bought 'no-name' inserts from a couple of advertisers on this site and they were fine. (For my amateur needs.)

Dunno what kind of kit you have, but many of us don't have the wherewithal to get the best out of carbide which likes to run fast, hard and hot. Like 4x faster than HSS.

For me inserts last much better than HSS but I've damaged a few by blobbing at them with coolant. It turns out they are all or nothing when it comes to lubrication - hot carbide tends to crack if you just dab at it.

As always the choice depends on how much you want to spend. If 'value-for-money' doesn't matter, HowardT has listed some of the quality brands. I couldn't name either the best cheap brand or the cheapest quality brand. Perhaps someone else knows?

Dave

Thanks guys, appreciated

I've tried several different sources of inserts and have to say that in future I'll stick to named manufacturers. Those supplied by third parties without naming the manufacturer MAY be ok, but there is no guarantee that they always will be since they are free to change supplier at any point. I'll stick to using Sandvik and Korloy for production work.

Best inserts i've used are Walter and Arno. although any of the industrial makers are good. Just make sure to get the proper geometry for the process, and the correct grade for the material, as that will have an effect on the life of the insert.

I recently bought some DCMT tips off ebay that were £10.00 per box. I thought that they would be utterly useless but felt that at that price I needed to try them. The first box were marked Mitsubishi and regardless of whether they were real or fake, they were excellent. The second box were different but still worked well. Are they the best inserts? probably not but they have to be up there with the most economical.

Regards.

David.

PS

At some time I will set up a test and compare them against some of the branded ones I have.

Well that was me off on the wrong foot I thought you where after tip profiles. When I was working I used many differing brands of tip all the branded commercial tips where good. We used mainly Iscar due to the local supplier giving a good discount and more importantly 90 days credit on the invoice ! Now I am retired I use branded stuff where possible from autojumble stall and ebay sellers plus some good results on the direct from China stuff. If you only pay £10/£12 a box rather than the same amount per tip don't expect the same performance but for light hobby use I find the cheap inserts OK. Chris.

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Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 02/04/2017 14:04:42

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