We run a survey to find out the most popular end mill brands every year, and 2017 was no different.
But to get the most value out of a market share survey for your own buying decisions, you need to understand what the respondents were aiming for when they chose their end mills. That’s what you’ll learn in this article:
Top 3 Inexpensive Endmill Brands
Among those respondents who said their buying criteria was to find the most inexpensive endmills, the top 3 brands were:
Generic / Chinese Made Endmills
Accupro
Atrax
BTW, let me just say I have bought a lot of name brand end mills on the cheap. I do so via eBay. If you’re good at eBay, you will eventually find what you want for about 1/2 retail or less.
Of course if you’re a pro-shop, you don’t have time for that nonsenses, but then you’re probably not buying the cheapest end mills either. At least I hope not!
Top 10 Endmill Value Brands
Among those respondents who said their buying criteria was to find the endmills with the best balance between performance and cost, the top brands were:
Harvey Tools
Accupro
Niagara
OSG
Kennametal
Lakeshore Carbide
Garr
Guhring
MA Ford
Onsrud
This is where my head’s at, and lately I have bought a lot of Lakeshore Carbide cutters. But, over time, I have bought all these brands. They’re all good quality.
Top 10 Endmill Performance Brands
Among those respondents who said their buying criteria was to find the endmills with the best performance regardless of cost, the top brands were:
Harvey Tools
Garr
Onsrud
Niagara
OSG
SGS
YG-1
Accupro
Kennametal
Iscar
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Bob is responsible for the development and implementation of the popular G-Wizard CNC Software. Bob is also the founder of CNCCookbook, the largest CNC-related blog on the Internet.
Hi Bob
I am very new to the CNC world and impressed with the talent that pings back to the topics you share. Most of them seem immersed in metal. The recent article and survey on endmills was a great education for me but left me with more questions than answers. Can you recommend optimal endmills for wood workers in some future article/survey?
Hey, Steve and Daniel. Thanks for joining the discussion. The thing is, most of these manufacturers have cutters suitable for wood workers. Onsrud, in particular, is one of the leaders in that field.
A standard upcut spiral is just an end mill. Compression and downcut are more specialized for wood applications, so check on who is making those among these manufacturers.
In the future, I may break this into two surveys, one aimed exclusively at CNC Router users.
These lists are metal working end mills, do you have any plan for a wood oriented survey?
Where they are purchased might also be useful to share.
Hi Bob
I am very new to the CNC world and impressed with the talent that pings back to the topics you share. Most of them seem immersed in metal. The recent article and survey on endmills was a great education for me but left me with more questions than answers. Can you recommend optimal endmills for wood workers in some future article/survey?
Hey, Steve and Daniel. Thanks for joining the discussion. The thing is, most of these manufacturers have cutters suitable for wood workers. Onsrud, in particular, is one of the leaders in that field.
A standard upcut spiral is just an end mill. Compression and downcut are more specialized for wood applications, so check on who is making those among these manufacturers.
In the future, I may break this into two surveys, one aimed exclusively at CNC Router users.
Im surprised Hanita has not made the list. Ive been very please with their endmills.
Casey, Hanita definitely appears in the market share survey, but just weren’t prevalent enough among these various users to be on these short lists.