Why are some end mills so much more expensive than others, and are they worth the cost? Every machinist must have wondered about this question at some point.  Many develop fierce loyalties to the brand that has worked for them.

When you’re picking out cutting tools, the first challenge is to figure out which style to buy. The second is to select what material and coating combination you’ll need. You might be questioning why coatings matter – surely it’s just a marketing ploy to get you to spend an extra couple bucks, right?

Let’s be honest with each other, we all love getting new tools. Getting your hands on a new saw or cutting tool or even an altimeter drives excitement and you instantly find yourself looking for anything that needs to be trimmed, cut, or measured. When you get an end mill that you’ve never used, before you lose yourself in tooling euphoria, do these three things to make your machining experience all that is can be.