Cheap end mills from that online surplus store cost me a $600 job

I bought a bulk pack of carbide end mills for $40 from some discount website. They seemed fine at first, but on the third run one shattered and gouged the part so bad I had to scrap the whole batch. Anyone else learned the hard way that saving money on tooling costs more in the long run?

2 comments

2 Comments

hill.troy9d ago

One bad bit doesn't prove cheap tooling is a scam.

ryanj609d ago

@hill.troy I get what you're saying but one bad bit can absolutely tell you a lot. Cheap bits snap way easier under heavy use and tend to wobble out of alignment after a few holes. I burned through three HF bits drilling into a single stud last month, that's not just bad luck. Dollar store stuff is fine for soft pine but throw some oak at it and you're toast in seconds.