In this video I’ll test six low budget end mills for milling aluminium on a CNC router.

Affiliate links to the end mills:

Tool 1: ⅛ inch 2 flute: http://bit.ly/2N2DyEE
Tool 2: 4 mm 3 flute: http://bit.ly/2N2DPXZ
Tool 3: 5 mm 3 flute: http://bit.ly/2N2DPXZ
Tool 4: 4 mm 2 flute: http://bit.ly/2N1KYb2
Tool 5: 4 mm 2 flute: http://bit.ly/2SxnT6g
Tool 6: 6 mm 2 flute chamfer: http://bit.ly/2tmihfX

(Tool 1 3:00 Tool 2 7:17 Tool 3 11:50 Tool 4 12:48 Tool 5 14:40 Tool 6 15:36)

Blogpost, tool library and fusion files: http://bit.ly/2BzwQ4B

After many hours of doing tests with cutting aluminium on my CNC router I reached a high enough skill level that that almost all of my operations succeed. Getting to this point has resulted in many broken end mills. Lately I am investing in high quality tooling to get even better performance when milling aluminium on my CNC 6040 router. The low budget tools that I used for all the testing where in the $0,50 to $5 dollar price range. The high quality tools that I recently added to my collection cost $35 or more. I have changed my work approach to prevent these expensive tools from breaking.

The main cause of tool damage is a mistake in the g-code. Testing new CAM settings, materials or workholding are still activities with a high chance of a mistake.The first part of my new work approach is that I only use the expensive tools on operations that I’ve tested with the low budget tools. The second change is the implementation of the fusion 360 CAM templates. With these templates it’s possible to save CAM operations that have work well. When starting on a new workpiece you can just regreate the operation on the new workpiece. With the use of the templates the chance of making a mistake is very small.

In this first end mill test video I selected six tools that were super cheap but still good enough to cut 6060 Aluminum on my CNC 6040 router. In future video’s I would like to test more end mills both in the low budget category (below $5) and the medium to high priced tooling.

Do you have suggestion on end mills I should test in my next video? Please leave a comment in the comment section below.

Affiliate links to the end mills:

Tool 1: ⅛ inch 2 flute: http://bit.ly/2N2DyEE
Tool 2: 4 mm 3 flute: http://bit.ly/2N2DPXZ
Tool 3: 5 mm 3 flute: http://bit.ly/2N2DPXZ
Tool 4: 4 mm 2 flute: http://bit.ly/2N1KYb2
Tool 5: 4 mm 2 flute: http://bit.ly/2SxnT6g
Tool 6: 6 mm 2 flute chamfer: http://bit.ly/2tmihfX

music credits:

first track:
50 $tants (Instrumental Hip-Hop Beat) by Clapp&theBassPhysician https://soundcloud.com/clapandthebass…
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
second track:
Buddha by Kontekst https://soundcloud.com/kontekstmusic
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
third track:
50 $tants (Instrumental Hip-Hop Beat) by Clapp&theBassPhysician https://soundcloud.com/clapandthebass…
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0
fourth track:
Life Is by Cosimo Fogg (201) https://soundcloud.com/cosimo-fogg
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
fifth track:
Hold On by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported— CC BY-SA 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
sixth track:
Chill Soul Rap Instrumental by Nkato https://soundcloud.com/nkato
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
seventh track:
Title: Parasail
Artist: Silent Partner

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