I like corn on the cob! Roughers

[Duder321]

I was purusing Amazon last week looking for some deals on end-mills. Came across some old-stock and closeouts on some Niagra HSS. $5.09 for some 1/4" 4 flutes, $11 for a 2" flute length 3/8" 4 flute, $8 for a 37/64" 4 flute (odd size but good price for a bigish cutter), and lastly, a 3/4" roughing end mill for $16! Good deal for sure as it's typically a $60 end mill.

Better yet, I'm astounded by how well it works, even on my x2 mini mill based frankenmill. It's got these nice chamfered corners so the edges don't chip out and the amount of material I was able to remove is unrivaled by any other cutting tool I dared to try on the mill. Anything close with a standard end mill would send the machine into convulsions and ultimately kill the cutter. The results are no big deal to people with full sized machines but anyone with a rigidity challenged small machine should look at getting a similar quality rougher for material removal in steel.

For reference, the lenght of cut in the picture is .4" and depth of cut is .25". Spindle was ~350 RPM. Feed was ? Pretty aggressive to keep the chips flying off as seen.

[spro]

I like it too! I think that particular one is sold out now. There are equivalent deals on other grades. There is TIN and M42 8% cobalt and more solid cobalt. Some are only side cutting and some 4-flutes say they are center cutting. There is a good deal on a Hannita /Veritas (sp)(Israel) M42 and they know what they are doing. Shars sells sets of roughers in different grades and bunches of them. Toolmex has a fairly high shipping price for one endmill but shipping is free on orders over $50.00
When I look at the products they offer, which can be combined, it is easy to find a way to get a deal. The other thing is that Toolmex products are either made in Poland or S. Korea, which last I saw, are still Ally s.

[Jaxian]

I agree heartily. When it comes to the old maxim "rough ugly" it is very hard to do on a more flexible machine without mayhem. But a good wavy,corn cob type rougher can make even small mills seem like beasts.

Here are a couple of six flutes I use in steel and iron. The little guy is a 1.25" and the larger is a 2". Ignore the size they go in a No.4 horizontal so rigidity and power (20hp) are not issues. But the premise is the same.

For aluminum I use three flute versions. They can be run at much higher feed rates with the extra chip evacuation space. The only issue being cleanup as chips fly everywhere. Not facemill like, but still messy. These are 1.5". I bought six and one is in a holder which I don't have a picture of but again ignore the size, it's the function I want to illustrate. Still waiting to wear out the first one to move to the second. Excuse the storage mess I just got 35 more large end mills for that machine and need to come up some better way to hold them.