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Chinese end mills

I have purchased maybe a two dozen or so carbide EM from Ali - I usually pay around $10 for 12mm EM.

They are good - comparable to US EMs of similar grade. I usually buy Azzkor or similar EMs.

I don't buy that EU carbide is better than Chinese - where would EU have the technology from? I assume in most machining related fields if you pay good money China will come on top in both price and quality. What we frequently get from China is not their top stuff but stuff that competes on price alone.

I think *grade* has a lot of to do with things & the actual carbide grading is frequently ignored at the home shop or placed into two categories "steel" and "aluminum".
 
Tom Kitta said:
They are good - comparable to US EMs of similar grade. I usually buy Azzkor or similar EMs.

I don't buy that EU carbide is better than Chinese
Click to expand...

I purchased a half dozen Azzkor endmills on Ali. All the small ones are gone. I got some old stuff from @Dabbler. I have yet to break the first one. I also bought two endmills from KBC that seem to be bullet proof.

I confess that most of my metal is mystery grade. But two identical Azzkors both broke almost right away and then a KBC endmill of the same size did all the remaining work without problems. I know that's just an anecdotal comparison but for my kind of work I can't help but think there really is a difference.

Apparently, there are at least 5,000 different grades of tungsten carbide sold under more than 1,500 different trade names by more than 1,500 different companies. If that is true, it's not a huge leap of faith to think that some are much better than others, nor that inexpensive endmills are more likely to be made of low end carbide.

Don't get me wrong, I still plan to get more Azzkor endmill - in the bigger sizes. But I won't be using them on mystery metal or even high strength steel. They will only get used on aluminium and brass. In the same way, I'm not gunna wear out expensive endmills on aluminium. This approach doesn't really bother me. For me, it's all about managing reasonable expectations in a world where my only control is what I buy, from who, how quickly, and for how much.
 
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Susquatch said:
I purchased a half dozen Azzkor endmills on Ali. All the small ones are gone. I got some old stuff from @Dabbler. I have yet to break the first one. I also bought two endmills from KBC that seem to be bullet proof.

I confess that most of my metal is mystery grade. But two identical Azzkors both broke almost right away and then a KBC endmill of the same size did all the remaining work without problems. I know that's just an anecdotal comparison but for my kind of work I can't help but think there really is a difference.

Apparently, there are at least 5,000 different grades of tungsten carbide sold under more than 1,500 different trade names by more than 1,500 different companies. If that is true, it's not a huge leap of faith to think that some are much better than others, nor that inexpensive endmills are more likely to be made of low end carbide.

Don't get me wrong, I still plan to get more Azzkor endmill - in the bigger sizes. But I won't be using them on mystery metal or even high strength steel. They will only get used on aluminium and brass. In the same way, I'm not gunna wear out expensive endmills on aluminium. This approach doesn't really bother me. For me, it's all about managing reasonable expectations in a world where my only control is what I buy, from who, how quickly, and for how much.
Click to expand...
You are quite right about the range of grades of carbide. We need to remember that carbide is really just a bunch of dust particles that are compressed together under heat and pressure, so depending on what particulate you have in the mix, you will get very different results!
 
SkookumRob said:
You are quite right about the range of grades of carbide. We need to remember that carbide is really just a bunch of dust particles that are compressed together under heat and pressure, so depending on what particulate you have in the mix, you will get very different results!
Click to expand...

You just taught me something just now. I knew that inserts were sintered, but I never realized that a carbide endmill was sintered too! I hope I never stop learning.
 
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