Switched from HSS to carbide end mills on my last big aluminum run and holy crap the difference

I was running a job with 200+ parts in 6061 aluminum last month at the shop near Chicago and kept burning through HSS end mills every 15 parts or so. My boss said just stick with what we got but I bought a pack of carbide ones from a local tooling supply for $120. With the HSS I had to keep stopping to adjust feeds and speeds every time a tool wore down. The carbide ones ran through all 200 parts with no tool change needed and the surface finish was way better. I even bumped up my spindle speed by like 2000 RPM and they handled it fine. Cost more upfront but I saved so much time on tool changes. Anyone else try swapping and see a big jump in productivity?

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mary_kelly1mo ago

The higher upfront cost pays for itself fast when you factor in downtime. On a job with that many parts, swapping tools every fifteen parts would eat up hours across the whole run. Plus the consistent finish means less cleanup or rework after. I had a buddy try carbide on stainless steel and he said the same thing about chip evacuation being way better. Your boss probably just doesn't want to mess with what's working for other jobs, but for high volume aluminum runs carbide is a no brainer.