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I am about to do an order with these guys http://www.bqtool.com/square-end-mills.html. I see they offer coated for a couple bucks more. Anyone know if it's a benefit for our application?

Thanks,
Danny

Coated end mills are great for the right application. I don't really think they would make a difference in wood though. I could be wrong since I don't really cut wood with my end mills. But I don't think you will see a 25% improvement to justify the 25% jump in price.

Coated with what? Titanium nitride, or any variant thereof? These are high performance items for metal cutting. Don't pay the extra - just get high speed steel.

I've burned up enough end mills in my time cutting wood.... go cheap.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I prefer ZrN over TiN, but I cut more aluminum than anything. But I agree that it wouldn't help much with wood.

BQTOOL specialize in solid carbid and they are very affordable , I use them but as a machinist I don't think the coating would be a benefit for wood,

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

i use 2 flute TiN coated endmills made by Niagra. cheap and durable. the coating is actually harder then the HSS underneath it and it keeps burnt resins and other stuff from sticking to it. not always necessary to go with carbide in the larger size tools but in diameters under, .125 you must.

coated HSS tools are kind of like japanese chisels in a way -a softer core to absorb shock and a harder outer skin to resist wear. typical m2/t15 hss has a hardness of about 66/68 while TiN coating is about 74Rc or so. more abrasion resistant to the minerals found in wood.

-2 cents

Niagra makes good stuff for the price arie. Lately I've been getting solid carbide ZrN coated end mills from Titan. A little more expensive than some others but made in the US and they last forever.

This might be a stupid question but I don't have any experience using endmills in routers. But what kind of collet system are you using to accept these endmills that aren't 1/4" and 1/2" diameter? I understand you can get a reducing collet but still am not sure how to grab all the different sized endmills. Are you using them in a router?

these from BQ tools are 1/8 inch shank and will work fine with dremels

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

endmills usually have shank diameters as follows: 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, etc... you can fit just about anything in a milling machine basically. now for a router you have to know what collet system you machine spindle has. ER16, ER25, or various sizes of other DA collets (double angle collets) are often used or funky proprietary sizes/shapes spec'd out by the mfg.

Lee Valley offers a collet reducer that works great. 1/4" - 1/8". These work great for cutting purfling channels in rosette work and lots of other things. I thought these mill ends have 1/8" shanks but John would know best. It's pretty close to 1/8th.

most collets will have a slight fudge factor but in US most are 1/4 and 1/2 for routers smaller die gringers and dremel are usually 1/8 and there are adapters for special applications.

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it