TAS 1/2" THE ALUMINUM SHREDDER VARIABLE FLUTE CARBIDE ROUGHING ENDMILL

You get what you pay for, right? Not always. After trying about 5 or 6 expensive cutters from different manufactures I thought I found my “high priced and state of the art rougher”, until I gave this cutter a try about 9 months ago. On my first go I used a tool path I had previously used on a competitor’s cutter(s) that was borderline pushing it (HEM, max DOC,40% radial engagement and the spindle maxed out). This cutter just puts everything else to shame. I would love to give speeds and feeds, but I have yet to find out what this cutter is even capable of. This cutter may scare the living daylights out of you when you see just how hard you can push it “This thing is going to break!”. I have used this on very rigid set-ups and non-rigid set-ups (speeds and feeds adjusted out of pure fear) all with no issues. I keep pushing the limits, ramping steeper, plunging faster, more radial engagement, more chip load, but the cutter just keeps doing what it does. If anything, I have maxed out my machine (Haas VM-2 with a 12K spindle). I have been hammering on the same cutter on and off since March of this year on a variety of aluminum and naval brass, I cannot kill this thing. The TAS roughers are a staple in my shop, I always have a ¼” and a ½” in the mills. Save yourself the time and money I wasted (hurts to think about). You just found what you have been looking for.

I was dubious this would be superior to other roughers, but wow - this is the only endmill I use now for roughing out aluminum. An amazing cutter.