Tooling

[jjanes]

Hi everyone, just a quick question.What are some sources for bits especially ballend end mills I was thinking 1/8 - 3/16 shaft fairly small cutting diamter as my current focus  is lithographs. My materials are nothing special just acrylic sheets from an 1/8 to 1/4 inch  thick.

This is more of a general request though,most good sources would have what I need, I just need to find them.

You know, go with this good place; beware of this place kinda thing.

My cutting tool is a craftsman dremel so nothing to fancy yet unless anyone has a real inexpensive cutting laser for thin balsa wood handy they want to get rid of.


So what are your bit sources
Please help me out
Thanks
Jeff

[RICH]

Don't take this as a dumb answer, but, anywhere and anyplace where you can find them  at the cheapest cost you can get them for.
The 1/8" dia and small ballends get expensive and break easily.

RICH

[ger21]

I get mine on Ebay for about $5 each. For lithophanes, though, I prefer 1/16" or even smaller for best detail.

[jjanes]

Thanks Ger21 I will look there

Thanks Rich, the reason I was asking  was that the only places I have been able to find online varied significantly in pricing and the only local stores I could find at this point do not even carry the things I am looking for, Orchard, Lowes, Home Depot, so I was hoping for online examples.

The range I got for  1/8 shank diameter  .02 cutting diameter with 2 flutes and a .06 cutting depth was between $12 and $40 both carbide is that normal?

[RICH]

Just do a search of all the places like MSG, JL, EMCO, etc  and you will see that the corbide 1/8" shank  with whatever diameter cutting end are not cheap.
I'm working on a small model and the feed rate and cut depth becomes important since as i said they can break in a heart beat. The Dremel tool has a fair amount of runout and that is just one thing that
helps break them. Some plastics or polymer material can be just as bad as metal or worst. I just bought a bunch on Ebay from different sellers to try out.

RICH

[jjanes]

I guess what I was looking for was MSG, JL, EMCO or any other website urls  I just do not know of many as I am just starting out.

on a separate note what is exactly meant by runout

[RICH]

Runout is the amount of deviation from a true reference line of a  turning object.
So if you chuck that small end mill into the Dremel, and when it is turning, the wobble seen would be the runout.
So image trying to cut a line 0.020" wide with a 0.020" cutter and the end of it is actual wobbling around such that outside circle of the wobbly rotating cutter is 0.030".
RICH

[jjanes]

thanks makes sense would one of those smaller bosch routers have less

[RICH]

Never had one, Gerry what do you use?
RICH

[ger21]

I use a Porter Cable 690.

You can get precision collets for a Bosch Colt from www.precisebits.com that have extremely low runout. I use them on my Porter Cable for 1/8" and smaller bits.