As many machinists and shop owners know you can find carbide end mill sets online for extremely low prices. Most of these tools are shipped from overseas and, unsurprisingly, you end up getting what you pay for. All tools will wear down and break over time, but you can influence how long that process takes based on where you purchase your tools.

Carbide is the preferred material for milling cutters. It is both strong and dense, meaning carbide tools can hold their cutting edges for a long time. In its raw form, carbide is actually a ceramic material. Tungsten carbide, one of the most common tool carbides, is typically manufactured as a grey powder. In order to create tools that take advantage of this material’s strengths, this ceramic powder has to be suspended in a metal bonding agent. The combined metal-ceramic sintered material is what we know as tool carbide.

Many of the cheap carbide end mill sets you see online are cheap for a reason. Typically material quality is one of the first things to go when manufacturers cut costs. This might mean that these overseas manufacturers are selling tools that are only carbide tipped/coated instead of being solid carbide. Even if the tools are solid carbide, there are different grades of carbide and the low price probably means low quality carbide.

This means that you should expect these tools to quickly dull and fail. The composition of carbide tools makes it hard for them to lose their cutting edge, but low quality carbide can have an uneven composition that will erode differently over time, creating weak points that can fail. In some cases, these weak points might even result in cracking and failure of the cutter in a short period of time compared to a well constructed end mill.

If you want carbide end mills that are going to last, buying from an American manufacturer is a great way to ensure a high quality performance. Unlike overseas buyers, you can trust the fact that industry standards in the states means that solid carbide tools will be real solid carbide. You will also get to enjoy one thing that you can not typically find when dealing with overseas vendors, customer service. American manufacturers are on your schedule, speak your language, and they want to retain your business.

To see a huge selection of precision made solid carbide cutting tools, check out www.OnlineCarbide.com. You might have to spend a little more if you want to create your own carbide end mill set, but the difference in quality will make a big difference in the long run over buying cheap tools from overseas. If you have any questions about the tools they offer, you can reach a member of the Online Carbide team by calling 630.238.1424 between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm CST or send an email to [email protected].