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Switched from HSS to carbide end mills and I get it now
I ran HSS tooling for years because it was cheaper and I figured I could just resharpen them. A buddy who does production work kept telling me I was wasting time. Last month I had a job with 50+ pieces of 4140 and decided to drop $80 on a single carbide end mill just to prove him wrong. That one tool cut all 50 parts with zero issues and the finish was way better than my HSS stuff on its first pass. I didn't even break down and swap inserts like I normally would. Now I'm looking at long term cost and the time saved is worth more than the upfront price. Has anyone else switched over and found it makes a real difference on your hourly output?
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wilson.claire18d ago
seriously, I was the same way for years (you know, married to HSS because I'm cheap). but yeah, @michael_jones is absolutely right - that first time you watch a single carbide tool chew through 50 parts of 4140 without even hinting at wearing out, you just feel dumb for all the time you wasted swapping inserts and resharpening. my buddy still gives me crap about the whole "I'll just sharpen them myself" thing, which is fair because that never worked out as well as I told myself it would. the finish difference alone made me wonder why I ever bothered with HSS for anything harder than aluminum. it's one of those things where you don't realize how much time you're burning until you stop burning it, you know?
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