What a different a end makes

When I started my milling adventure I had no idea how much difference a mill end made. Today I received my first 2 flute 1/4 mill end from a decent make here in the UK. Previously I had been using other brands usually purchased from china for £1/3 per end and had been burning through them. Not only that I would be doing 0.1mm cuts in aluminium - today I was conservative with the DOC at 0.5mm - 5 times the depth and it handled it like a champ! I milled 4 smallish clamping brackets in under 20min from 8mm stock.

Needless to say no more cheap mill ends for me!

I wanted to see what others are using out there? I assume many will be using carbide 3ds own brand (I would too if I could get them easily in the UK).

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The community has been trying to crowdsource a list of good endmills w/ commentary:

http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Endmills#Specific_Bit_and_Brand_Recommendations

If you’d note the specifics of the nice new one you just purchased, we could add that.

Ah nice one, the kind I purchased was a europa tool

as found on this Ebay page, but they can be bought elsewhere. I also purchased the same brand 3 flute and a ball nose. I’m yet to try the ball nose.