While we all know the importance of picking the right machine tool for the right job, it’s important to remember that there is so much more to making chips than just the mill or lathe you are using. Choosing the right tools and workholding for your job is just as important, if not more so!
Yes, tooling is less expensive, but it still hurts when you pick the wrong end mill for your part or just overspend on tooling that you won’t need.
Before You Buy Tooling
Obviously, make sure you know the tooling needed before scouring the dark reaches of the internet for end mill options.
Depending on the parts and materials you’re cutting, you need to pick specific end mill materials, coatings, and tooth geometries. There’s lots of online knowledge bases and recommendations for tooling. If you’re looking to cut aluminum, here’s one we did: How to Choose an End Mill for Aluminum
Online Shopping for End Mills
Once you know what you need, there is a vast (arguably, a wasteland) of places to buy tooling, but they aren’t all good.
Many folks look to eBay as a viable option. If you’re on a budget, this could be a solution, but it’s a bit of a guessing game to know what might arrive on your doorstep.
Amazon has some decent options as well, but like eBay, there can sometimes be a guessing game as to what you’re going to get. Let’s be honest, Amazon’s strong suite isn’t tools. Lots of good stuff, with Prime shipping, but they aren’t specialized.
Many folks are unaware that Tormach sells tooling online as well. Now, lots of people know about our fly cutter or the Tormach Rotary Broach, but standard end mills are readily available for purchase as well.
In fact, we’ve already implemented a new feature that will allow you to filter out the tools on our website by manufacturer. So, if you want to buy all the YG-1 tools that we offer, it’ll be a quick and simple process!
Tools and Expertise
The real advantage to buying tooling from a trusted source, like Tormach, is that we can provide you with some expertise and insight. Our support team is comprised of machinists who make chips almost every day.
While they can’t tell you what to buy or how to use it exactly (the world of materials is too big for that and a lot of it depends on your CAM, workholding, etc.) they can give you some recommendations if you have a couple of process questions, and help solve challenges, should they arise.
While we don’t have “Prime,” shipping is free if you spend more than $99.
That means you can get the quality tooling you need to start making chips, get some insight from real machinists, and know that it’s coming from a company that stands behind its products.
We are also working to make finding the right tooling easier. You may have noticed that we remodeled our website recently.
