Good place for sourcing end mills?

[BaronJ]

I only buy what I need to do the job I'm doing now ! Otherwise I make the cutters/tools that I need.

 

[GunsOfNavarone]

I only buy what I need to do the job I'm doing now ! Otherwise I make the cutters/tools that I need.

You make cutters?? For the Mill? Wha...how...i....what metal do you use? How do you harden it? I'm impressed!! I didnt know that was even possible!

 

[BaronJ]

Yes ! why not.

The cutters that you need will depend upon the job you want to do.
No hardening involved. You simply grab broken taps, lathe tools, almost anything using HSS and adapt it to suit.
My most used mill tool is a fly cutter. I done slots, dovetails, rebates etc with one. I did post pictures of a dovetail slide that I made, done entirely with a fly cutter. OK I did use a drill and a tap, but that was all.

 

[GunsOfNavarone]

Yes ! why not.

The cutters that you need will depend upon the job you want to do.
No hardening involved. You simply grab broken taps, lathe tools, almost anything using HSS and adapt it to suit.
My most used mill tool is a fly cutter. I done slots, dovetails, rebates etc with one. I did post pictures of a dovetail slide that I made, done entirely with a fly cutter. OK I did use a drill and a tap, but that was all.

I'll have to see if i can find your thread, and WTH are you up at 2:20 in the morning??!?

 

[Buffalo21]

I’ve had a lot of good luck with the “Kodiak Cutting Tools” brand off of Amazon

the Kodiak Cutting Tool office is about 5 miles from my house

 

[BaronJ]

Hi there Guns,

Oh you noticed that
At my age my bladder wakes me up at some very strange hours !
On the other hand, I grab some Zzzz at srange hours too.

Now where is that post I made:

https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/using-a-fly-cutter.72418/#post-607858

Here you go ! It also shows some of the tools I have made.

 

[GunsOfNavarone]

Thanks Baron, doesn't it matter what kind of steel is used for the actual cutting bit? I mean, you wouldn't want to grab a piece of mild steel square stock and make even a bit for a flycutter...would you? I mean you need a steel harder than the base material your cutting? I notice on my different pocket knifes, some stay sharp for a long time, some dull quickly. So the material is key there. I inherited some nice chisels and read up how to maintain them...there is a method to sharpening and heat treating tgem...

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Guns,

As I mentioned before, just take advantage of any tool steel that you can lay hands on. Its surprising how much you can find just thrown out for scrap.

And yes you are right, the kind and quality of the steel that you use for knife making is important, in fact any tool that has to maintain a sharp edge has to have sufficient hardness and yet not be so brittle as to snap under load. The old chisels that you mention, I have a few myself, are high carbon steel and need to be protected from getting hot when sharpening. Once the edge has been overheated it wont keep that edge for very long.
Modern chisels are much better in this respect, but don't seem to be as sharp somehow. The same applies to smoothing plane blades.

I saw something quite recently about a guy that was buying old bed springs and cutting up into bits so he could melt them and make knife blades from the steel.

 

[GunsOfNavarone]

Its funny, when you first starting talking about making your own tools, since we were talking end mill sourcing,i was picturing you making a 4 flute, 1/2" , cobalt cutter. I am unsure if i can even sharpen my own tools at this point, though i have Japanese stones for my knives and i am decent with that, this is a whole new monkey.

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Guns,

Oh dear ! I feel that I may have disappointed you !
Here is a picture of an 1/2" end cutter that I made:

Before anybody says, its chipped ! Yes it is ! That is what you get for dropping them onto a tile floor.
Still there are three other edges to go at.