Cheap Indexable End-Mill

I'm looking at one of these (**LINK**) ...

...and wondering whether it would be useful with my round column mill for roughing out. It's not going to work for plunging cuts but for hogging material.

It's obviously wrongly labelled and this one's got a 14mm diameter and so may be better after shortening and turning down to fit 1/2" or 12mm collets.

Any value or a waste of time? - Any or all opinions welcome.

Many thanks

Jon

Funnily enough i bought one from banggood the other day and it came today from the uk rather than china as expected it was bigger than expected with a 25mm shaft but looks well made.it was a tough job turning the shaft down to 16mm to fit into a MT3 collet...it works well

I have a 16mm one and find it works well. I have yet to change the cutting edges from the original position and have removed plenty of aluminium with it.

Martin C

I have a 16mmØ one from Glanze. Had it a while but only used it infrequently. However, over the last few days I've used it to true up the edges of the table of my Perfecto shaper and very good at it, it was. Using light cuts of between 0.5 and 1.0mm, it gave a perfectly adequate finish on the cast iron.

There's no sign of wear on either cutting edge.  At that price, I'd buy one for the inserts alone.

John

Edited By John Hinkley on 15/11/2017 19:23:59

Hi All,

Thanks very much for your advice. At that price it's just below the threshold for VAT and so has to be worth a punt.

Jon

Edited By Jon Gibbs on 15/11/2017 19:31:38

Hi

I tried putting the description of the item in UK Ebay and found 8 apparently similar items, but at prices ranging from £3.99 ( +postage) upwards. Must be modern marketing at work.

Rod

From what I have been able to find out about these, they are clones of the Mitsubishi BAP300R system (see page L156) and one of the key benefits is the availability of the AP**1135 inserts with 11mm edge length. There are very similar tools from other suppliers.

The main disadvantage of these in my view is that they give a very interrupted cut (= noisy, shaky etc - can be quite alarming) and ideally require a rigid machine and high spindle speeds. On the upside, the inserts have positive rake and are available for steel (ground and coated) and loominum (polished, uncoated).

The tool shown is really intended for slotting and side cutting but may be a bit of a challenge for a light machine. If you are actually after a face mill, you can get 50mm and 63mm etc holders that take 4-5 inserts and are probably a good choice for lighter machines.

Murray

Murray,

Thanks for the warning. My machine's an RF25 which might not be rigid enough although it probably has the speed.

Do you think the interrupted cut problem is because the longer cutting edge is not mounted helically for side cutting, like an end-mill would be?

Jon

I have several sizes if the Banggood cutters. They work reasonably well after you shorten the shank to a reasonable length. As supplied they are far too long.

I know how this is described but what is it really intended for:

- lathe turning tool?

- lathe boring tool?

- end mill?

I bought a 50mm MT3 one a couple of months ago from that site people keep Banging on about how Good it is but on the X3 it just gets pushed off the surface and has been relegated to the back of the mill tooling draw. Might get some better tips and give it another try but don't think it will be a lot better.

I do nave a 40mm one with 3 triangular inserts and no rake that works a lot better as do the 1" dia "Little Hoggers" also with triangular inserts but held to give negative rake.

It's an end mill for slotting, side cutting and facing ie for end mill use. Slotting will be a challenge on a light machine but facing less of an issue. A larger one will work like a flycutter with several inserts. The inserts often have a "wiper" (flat horizontal edge) geometry, so that you don't end up with little semicircular ridges due to the radius of the nose.

Murray

Agreed.

Unfortunately the shanks are too long to be practical as milling cutters and need to be cut down.

I don't know what the budget situation is like, would be easier to give a clearer answer if it was VS something else to buy, but I don't think you could go far wrong for just a trial yourself.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 16/11/2017 16:24:01

I have a fair few HSS end mills, including some roughers, and means to sharpen them.

I don't have any carbide end mills though and I just wondered whether it might be a cheap and handy alternative for cast iron roughing to save too much resharpening or bu99ering up my decent roughers.

Jon

It will work just fine. Shorten it a bit Just use light cuts. I have an Ajax MD20 round column mill and I use both 2 & 3 flute /16 & 20mm diameter types. All use XD 11T3 tips. I have several different radii tips and find them very useful for slotting/facing etc.. They need to be run quite fast so make sure you use the speeds & feeds correctly for the material you are cutting. I got mine from WNT, part numbers 59 737 016 & 59 737 020. I use them in an ER32 collet holder. They also work well on my Chester Conquest mill.

regards

#2 on the Little Hoggers. Noisy but work well on my Bridgeport and, previously, my Chester Lux style square column mill. Pity there still appears to be no proper advice on speeds, feeds & depth of cut beyond 5 X HSS and around 12" per minute. Fine on my Bridgeport but I suspect smaller machines will be struggling. As is so common with carbide slowing down for an easier life is counter-productive.

Old penguins like me can soon sort out what works and what doesn't but carbide first timers could do with a bit more help.

Clive.

I bought a 63mm one from Banggood a couple of months ago, which takes 4 APMT 1604 inserts. Really good finish on aluminium but terrible on mild steel - very hard on the machine and a poor finish even with the lightest of cuts. Maybe the feeds and speeds are all wrong, but playing around didn’t seem to improve matters much.

Almost a candidate for Clive’s white elephant thread!

Edited By Steve Pavey on 18/11/2017 21:06:34

Thanks for that steeve, I've only tried it on iron and steel so may dig it out of th edraw and try on ali.

I have just noticed that I have a picture of my 16mm version of this type of end mill in my albums. This was being used on silver steel and gave a good finish as can be seen.

Martin C

It is branded Teknik and was made in Turkey. I can't remember exactly but I think it was bought on Ebay. 

Edited By Martin Connelly on 19/11/2017 18:01:05