Where to buy HSS end mills?

I'm surprised at how bad search in eBay has become. It lets you specify end mill diameter and shank, but yields no results at that shank diameter. It is optimized to keep you on the site, but not to find your items. If I deselect end mill diameter and square end and only have 1/4" shank selected, I get 0 returns with 1/4" shanks. Get tons of 3/8" shank stuff. Don't like that "feature" one bit. If a site doesn't carry it, that's fine. Just don't waste my time with garbage.

Probably have to do an external search for the item. For that matter, all of the major search players have been corrupted to serve you advertisements rather than actually find what you are looking for... Hardly any of the search engines work worth a darn any more.
 
I've had really good luck with everything I've bought from CME Tools (not far from me in Madison Heights, MI). They have an eBay store and a website with online ordering as well. It's worth checking both places as sometimes one has a better price than the other. I started with their M42 roughing end mills and have started buying carbide from them as well (along with a shockingly accurate lathe chuck and extremely smooth keyless drill chuck). I know they also sell normal HSS end mills and their selection is pretty good...you can buy singles and mix/match on their website a bit easier than through eBay.

Just an FYI, if you don't have any, a roughing end mill is a great option to have...especially with smaller mills. I started out with a Sherline mill and they made a huge difference, but they still make a noticeable difference on a Bridgeport or medium size machines like the Clausing 8520 I had briefly.


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MSC lists over 100 HSS and over 100 Cobalt end mills in 1/4" cutter diameter in 2 and 4 flute. Enco was a subsidiary of MSC, and when Enco closed those products were rolled into MSC's catalog. I was still able to order some older/cheaper Enco end mills from MSC not too long ago. Also note, MSC website prices seems to drop if you log in with an account. Somehow the 'list' price shown on line is what you get, unless you're a registered user?!?

That said, I've been running the 1/4" Atrax mills (carbide) from Enco/MSC for forever. I do use HSS sometimes (on aluminum mostly), but find I'm using more carbide lately. The stiffer carbide is nice, and the Atrax was very affordable.

When I started I crashed a lot of end mills. So crashing a few $5 endmills was less painful than crashing a few $35 end mills. Now that most of my end mills wear out instead of break, I'm buying better coated carbide that lasts longer. So, what's 'cheaper' may depend on how many end mills you break vs. wear out! ;)
 
raferguson said:
What I am looking for is 1/4 inch end mills, probably with 1/4 inch shank, about 1 inch cutting length. I would have thought that this would be easy, but it was not.
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Is there a specific reason you're needing the 1/4" shank? I just did a quick 'n dirty scan of KBC (my tooling purveyor of choice) and if I look at basic two-flute end mills there were around 375 in 3/8" shank vs only 56 in 1/4" shank. And of those 56 I think only one or two were HSS, the rest were carbide.

Granted this was only one provider and not an exhaustive search but still, I think the 1/4" shank diameter is really going to hamper your choices across the board. If you could go up to 3/8" you'd have a lot more to choose from.
 
G-ManBart said:
I've had really good luck with everything I've bought from CME Tools (not far from me in Madison Heights, MI). They have an eBay store and a website with online ordering as well. It's worth checking both places as sometimes one has a better price than the other. I started with their M42 roughing end mills and have started buying carbide from them as well (along with a shockingly accurate lathe chuck and extremely smooth keyless drill chuck). I know they also sell normal HSS end mills and their selection is pretty good...you can buy singles and mix/match on their website a bit easier than through eBay.

Just an FYI, if you don't have any, a roughing end mill is a great option to have...especially with smaller mills. I started out with a Sherline mill and they made a huge difference, but they still make a noticeable difference on a Bridgeport or medium size machines like the Clausing 8520 I had briefly.


Cutting Tools | CME Tools

Cobalt End Mills VIEW PRODUCTS Carbide End Mills VIEW PRODUCTS HSS End Mills VIEW PRODUCTS Drills VIEW PRODUCTS Taps VIEW PRODUCTS Counter Sinks VIEW PRODUCTS Deburring Tools VIEW PRODUCTS Inserts VIEW PRODUCTS Tool Bits VIEW PRODUCTS Boring Tools VIEW PRODUCTS Cutters VIEW PRODUCTS Reamer...
cme-tools.com cme-tools.com
Click to expand...
I have bought a few things from CME, most were good.

I recall getting an assortment of end mills, including a 1/4". I remember that one, it was a rougher, because somehow I broke it. That was the first end mill I ever broke, undoubtedly due to user error. Overall, the end mills have been fine for my use. Probably ought to replace that 1/4" one... Still have it, serves as a reminder to pay more attention to what I am doing!
 
I know it's not the 'real' answer to your question, but consider solid carbide. I, too, clung to HSS endmills for a long time, but eventually realized that HSS, in the contemporary hobby world should be relegated to the lathe (and a few special cutters - boring bars, etc) in the mill. But general milling is much better done with solid carbide endmills. Shars has some reasonably priced endmills, particularly if you're willing to deal with a 1/4" shank 1/4" endmill, as opposed to a 3/8" shank 1/4" endmill. Amazon sells "Speed Tiger" which I think are especially performant. They're not as cheap as they once were, but they're still quite a deal.

If you insist on HSS 'Niagara' brand are good, and available through MSC, Western Cutting Tool, and others, and are good quality. There is nothing worse than low-quality HSS, which burns out quickly, or develops a huge BUE. Really, go with solid carbide unless you have a very good reason to stick with HSS.

GsT
 
matthewsx said:
That said, wait around long enough and some retired machinist will load you up with so much stuff you'll need to put some into the pass-around-box.

John
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don't have to be retired. friend gives me boxes of the freshly sharpened ones. the company sends them out for sharpening but the employees wont use them unless they are on size. they keep repeating that
 
I just use ebay. Delivered to my door and they're cheap enough that when one breaks or chips, it's not a big deal. I usually keep 2-5 of each size around for such breakage occasions. They're inexpensive enough that a fistful doesn't cost a lot. But I'm under no misconceptions about what I'm buying.

Which brings us to: Quality.

Well, it's ebay and they're cheap so.......basically, you get what you pay for. You can spend beaucoup bucks on a high quality cutter and cry when it chips or breaks or you can have a handful of lower quality stuff that when it breaks.....well, you get a piece of HSS to make another cutter from.

I try to buy quality when I can, but I break enough end mills that it just doesn't make sense to pay a lot for them. Maybe when I get good enough that a broken or chipped tool isn't a relatively common occurrence....

;)
 
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