Hi,
Is it true that I need to make my test cuts in wood rather than MDF?
The operative word is 'need'. You do not 'need' to use wood but wood will cause less toolwear.
MDF is plentiful and cheap and provided it doesn't get wet, dimensionally stable. I say use it. It will dull tools,
but then certain woods, New Zealand native beech for instance, has high silica content and can dull tools/saws
even faster than MDF.
I would recommend carbide tools. I used to think that cheap no brand Chinese tools were OK, they certainly are cheap.
More recently I have found that name brand tools are significantly better and if you can find a supplier selling at
reasonable prices, is worth the extra.
I use small diameter (0.5mm and smaller) endmills for making circuit boards and I buy tools off EBay (link attached).
They stock Kyocera Tycom tools specifically for making PCBs at very
VERY reasonable prices and the quality of the
tools means that no 'cheap no brand tool' can hope to compete.
https://www.ebay.com/str/carbideplusI suspect these tools will probably be too small for your purposes but it illustrates the point that 'named brand tools can be
had reasonably and are well worth it'. I have no doubt other users will chime in with their favorite suppliers.
Craig