06-28-2015, 10:14 AM (This post was last modified: 06-28-2015, 10:16 AM by the penguin.)
About 3 weeks ago I bought a lot (group) of new Korean made HSS end mills, at a bargain price. As I said they are Korean made, HSS end mills, all of the end mill have 3/8" shanks, regardless of the cutter size. They are sold to be labeled as a dealer's house brand, but mine were unlabel except for size. I ordered 1/8", 3/16", 1/4", 5/16", 3/8", 7/16" and 1/2" end mills, they arrived yesterday, while I was at a family reunion (first one in 20+ years). The 1/8" and the 3/16" end mills are on back order, a note written on the packing slip said, probably next week. Pictured below are the examples of the end mills I got.
I will give them a trial and report back on the results.
They're bound to be better than the Chinese imports one can get from various sources (Enco, MSC, etc.) Let us know if you see good performance out of them, along with where others could get some if they turn out to be a good value.
Me, I haven't bought any HSS end mills in a long time as I prefer solid carbide and get pretty good life out of those. Actually, I get exceptional life out of most of them, and at what might seem to be ridiculous cutting rates. The problem is finding decent quality ones for an affordable price. My eBay shopping methods work well for that though.
I bought a few HSS end mills from a Korean manufacturer, through a supplier, about 4 years ago, they were excellent. I have no way of knowing if this is the same manufacturer, as they are only labelled with the size and Made In Korea. These are basically professional samples, the salesman and the LWS, gave them to me cheap, to get a few out there in the local market. They are meant to be labelled by the seller as their house brand. They could be great, or they could be crap, time will tell, hopefully they will work good.
As I stated, they were samples, I'm not sure the LWS is even going to sell them, I don't know the manufacturer, as they are only labeled with size and COO. I have no idea of their retail price. They also might be crap. I'm one of 5 people (or shops) the samples were spread across, the LWS is trying to make sure they are worth bothering with, they carry 3 other end mill lines, unless they are good and cheap, they are not going to bother.
OK, I'll admit...I have no clue what "LWS" might be. Is that a local hardware store, an on-line seller, a local industrial supply distributor, or some acronym for something too obvious for my small mind to figure out?
