Spent $250 on a ceramic end mill set and it either saved my weekend or wasted my money

I dropped $250 on a set of ceramic end mills for a hard steel job I had on Saturday. They cut through the material like butter with no coolant needed, which was great for the first two parts. But on the third run one chipped bad and ruined the finish, costing me a redo. Now I'm wondering if it was worth it over just using carbide and taking slower passes. Anyone else have good or bad luck with ceramic tools on tough metals?

2 comments

2 Comments

derek991d agoMost Upvoted

The real win is how they saved your spindle from heat soak.

robert_rodriguez661d agoMost Upvoted

Did you ever have one of those days where the only thing that saved your build was some random tip you saw on YouTube at 2am? I watched a guy wrap his spindle housing in that reflective heat tape stuff and figured it was worth a shot on my router table. Honestly, it dropped the temp by like 15 degrees and I haven't had a single bind since, so I'm all for anything that keeps the spindle happy.