Many thanks Jen, I will check those sites out as soon as I have finished typing. Once my build is complete I want to make sure I have the right bits for the right job and the best solution I think is to have a selection at hand. Many thanks once again.
Billy, When you check out think and thinks site you will find that they publish some nice tutorials. I used them for not only their collets but also their very well made shell cutting bits. Yours again, Jen
I get a lot of my bits from China through eBay or Amazon. They are incredibly cheap, not bad quality, and did I mention they are incredibly cheap? I can get 10 bits from China for the price of a single bit here. They do take a long time to get (typically 4-6 weeks), but I think they are worth it. It hurts a lot less if you break a $2.50 Chinese knockoff than if you break a $25 Onsrud or PreciseBits.com bit. Mind, there are a limited selection of styles, and you will still need the more expensive bits for specialty applications, but for everyday use you can't beat the Chinese. MG
Thanks Jen and Metalguru, Yep, might be safer as a newbee to start of with the cheaper bits and then move up in quality as I get more experienced using them. Plus I really need to know what bit does what, I'm clueless at the moment.
I found a great little resource which covers a lot of CNC machining questions regarding Bits and Applications. It's done by Onsrud who is a major bit manufacturer from Scandinavia somewhere, I believe. www.onsrud.com/files/pdf/LMT-Onsrud-CNC-Prod-Routing-Guide.pdf Whew, that was a mouthful. It should help you out. MG
Thanks for that, will give it a good read. I've got plenty of time on my hands whilst I wait for more parts to turn up.
No, nothing specific. The Chinese bits are likely all made by a few manufacturers, and I haven't found any to be total crap. I don't use AliExpress so I can't comment on manufacturers there. At least with Amazon and Ebay you can just send them back if they are poor quality. MG
I have purchased Chinese bits via amazon.com. There seems to be four or five different vendors. I use them for experimentation, learning best feeds and speeds,as they are cheap to break. XCAN is one vendor I have had luck with. I have others but their company names are written in Chinese so I cannot tell you their names. I think XCAN also sells on eBay as well, but cannot say for sure. They ship within a week or two unlike some others who can take up to six weeks. I have not had the pleasure of buying tooling from Ali Baba so cannot give you feedback on them. I have used them for machinery in other CNC projects in the past but seem to remember having issues with shipping methods and negotiation. I can purchase ten bit kits from china for half the price of one quality made western tool. They loose their edge relatively quickly, and easily break, but do work. This is ok because it allows me to derive conservative feed and speed settings with my thinking being when I switch to higher quality tools they will last much longer, which has proven true. I have a single .50 mm shell cutter from think tink that has cut a half dozen complex logos and corresponding pockets from abalone shell that is .050" thick (.005 passes at 5"/min) and is still like new. I broke six cheap bits during the learning curve to finally come up with this setting which would have been very costly had I used the "better" bits. Have fun, and a happy New Year! Jen
I have the Makita and purchased precision collets from Elaire Corporation. Elaire Corporation I have bought individual end mills from various companies depending upon what I needed it for. I would have to find the documentation to figure out where I got them from. I do not have it in front of me at this time.
I have purchased these from Amazon and they worked well on cutting aluminum. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EQ1WG4C/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Unfortunately, they have not been in stock for quite awhile. I believe if you find any like this in the 10-15 dollar range they will be of similar quality and probably made in the same factory, just sold by different distributors. For v-carving, I love this bit https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ALY4E2/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . I needed some extra long endmills and picked up two from Kodiak Cutting Tools and an additional 1/8 inch 4 flute (available thru Amazon, but cheaper if ordered directly from them). They work great. 1/4 inch extra long: Kodiak Cutting Tools® 1/8 inch extra long Kodiak Cutting Tools® I have also ordered a bunch from End Mill Discount - Carbide End Mills, Extra & Extra Extra Long Mills, Micro Tools, Thread Mills . They have good prices and shipping was reasonable. They also give a good description of what the mill is best used for and, if needed, they have metric. I bought a couple corner radius mills and some finishing mills for aluminum. I have yet to try them out. Most of those I bought came in well under $10/mill.
Is there a way to fit ER collets into a dewalt with for example an adapter of some sort? And if not, what's a good R8 spindle without breaking the bank?
thanks for the reply Peter! Ok will look into that but price is steep and the shipping cost even more ^^ however i would want to know what type of spindle would you need to get for a ER32?
One that's probably too heavy for an OB type machine. Here's some info that may help: Spindle Choice: Weights, Collets, and More! (and less!)
Well the reason i ask is that my father bought a ER32 set on a sale of a fabricating business foreclosure auction. He went there to buy some drills and saw the cnc ER32 and figured it would fit my machine but he has no clue of cnc and as i just started out myself, i was wondering which spindle it would fit. I've only found ER11 spindles etc on sites but not ER32...
A google search of ER32 Spindle will bring up some options. Again, they are too heavy for hobby machines and probably why you havent found any at the usual hobby sites.
ER32 spindles start in the 5kW range and use 380V. ER16 is about the max you should be using on this type of platform.
well ok thanks for the reply! I'll just stow them away for now for when i build a much much bigger cnc. Looking to build something where i can put 2meter+ length of table slabs in in the future.
