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Burned $300 on cheap end mills to save a buck, shoulda known better
Picked up a 20 pack of mystery brand 1/4" end mills off ebay for cheap, they snapped like twigs by the third part. Spent more time swapping tools than cutting, anyone else regret the bargain bin route?
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park.aaron1mo ago
The real cost isnt the broken tools, its the hours you lose re-leveling your spoilboard every time one snaps mid-cut. A clean break takes a chunk of your work piece with it and sometimes your fixture too. Ive seen guys burn through three cheap bits fighting the same batch of material when one decent one wouldve walked through it. Then theres the dust and vibration factor, cheap geometry makes the machine sound like a blender full of rocks. You end up chasing feeds and speeds that no internet chart can fix because the tool is just inconsistent out of the box. That $300 couldve bought five solid 2-flute jobs that wouldve lasted a month, not three days.
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