Super cheap 1/4 inch bits. I spent $16 on 20 of them. They only last about 6 to 10 large cut jobs, but, at this price, they aren’t to shabby.
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How many of these bits have you gone through? I recently bought some countersink bits straight from China like these (not for a cnc) and 4 of the 6 were complete garbage. Only two were even useable. Have you had good luck with all of them being good?
Also, perhaps slightly unrelated, how do you tell when to change the router bit?
I’ve been using them to cut specialized custom keyboard cases for the last year or so. On my precision cnc table I replace them when edges of cuts start to get fuzzy, on the Maslow I replace them when the edges start to taper by more than a 1/16. Basically, after they fail on my 2x4 GR3 cnc table they still have another 5 or 6 projects on the maslow.
We are using a desktop CNC machine at work for some light prototyping. For that machine I have been using end mills bought at McMaster-Carr. Those obviously have always been very good to me, but they are expensive (or at least can be depending on the type.) In the past year I have tried out some end mills on the same machine that I had gotten from Aliexpress and I have to say that for the price they have been quite decent.
Just wondering what the difference is between the bits shown above vs say these?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/5pcs-6mm-1-4-High-Quality-Carbide-CNC-Router-Bits-One-Single-Flute-End-Mill-Tools/32363528604.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.266.2f263c00GOSyPS
the ones in the link are upcut and will tend to chipi out the top of the plywood, but the bottom side will look good. Up cuts also have good chip removal so if you are cutting plastics or aluminum they are necessary otherwise the plastic will melt and refuse.
the ones posted above are straight cut and work well on wood with minimal tearing, but would not work on aluminum or plastic.
and surprisingly the carbide bits on amazon are much cheaper in price than the aliexpress ones. the problem is the best price is 6mm diameter, not the more typical 6.35mm (1/4") so you might want to buy a collet adapter for them to fit. Never assume that you are getting the best price just because you order it off Chinese web site. Certain items are cheaper in bulk from usa resellers.
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Aluminumwelder is absolutely right. I have noticed in the past 6 months that Amazon has either parity on most prices with Aliexpress or even better. And the stuff that is cheaper on Ali is most often true garbage. I have bought a lot over the years on Ali and have gotten burnt a couple of times.
and finally with amazon you can usually send it back to stateside and not all the way to China.
Sidenote, I bought a lot of 1/8 endmills from the Driilman’s bargain bin for my mini Zenbot. They’re mostly surplus PCB bits. Ships from a US source so maybe not as good for non-US maslovians.
Technically wood router bits are for wood, endmills are for metal (or PCB material in my case), different cutting angles among other things