Indexable Face and End Mills

[Janger]

I am shopping for new end and face mills for my new mill a 9x30" knee. I see these choices below as being interesting options. I've never used these indexable type before so I'm not sure what to expect. Anybody have any comments?

$1oo
Fancy. Pricey inserts. Can I use this as a facing tool as well as end mill?
https://www.accusizetools.com/2-x-6...ls-with-5-apkt1604-carbide-inserts-0028-6906/
insert $7.80
vs

https://www.accusizetools.com/r8-shank-carbide-indexable-end-mill/
insert $3.60
vs

https://www.accusizetools.com/straight-shank-carbide-indexable-end-mills/

and there is this interesting set.:
https://www.accusizetools.com/0046-0700-3-ps-set-little-hogger-mills-1-dial-head-3-4-shank/
insert $5

 

[John Conroy]

I have one like the first one. I use it mostly for facing . Sometimes i use it like a fly cutter with only 1 insert. It takes a lot of power to drive it so you have to take shallow cuts unless you have a solid mill. My old square column mill did not like more than .015" doc in steel. You can get the inserts cheaper on ebay

 

[PeterT]

I also have similar to first link, 2"dia 5-inserts except mine is a head on top of a mill head shank. Love it. I have not touched the fly cutters since. Arguably, the only thing a fly cutter could offer is more consistent finish when the cut diameter fully envelopes the whole part as oppose to passes which leaves slightly different finish per pass. But that's just the cosmetics aspect & not something I do often. From a material removal standpoint it is my #1 mill tool now for facing & truing stock. Can't speak for Accusize, they have been hit & miss for me. Its the familiar crap shoot syndrome: could be exact same you pay more for under a familiar label, or slightly inferior copy that ends in buyers regret because of run-out or looser tolerances? I actually think an integrated R8 shank like Accusize would be better (assuming its tight runout & insert pocket tolerance). I kind of hedged my bet with bolt-on head + mill shank but in reality I never bought a different head so they stayed married.

Inserts. On one hand I like the APKT 16xx inserts. They come in all kinds of flavours, nose radius, coating, chip breaker (all on Ebay/Ali at decent prices). The uncoated inserts I reserve for aluminum are amazing. And you can use them in end mills (which I haven't done). But you only get 2 cutting corners on these. There are other heads that orient same HZ to use other corners but that's another expense. There is another insert style that has 4 corners, sorry cant recall. The head was comparable cost but at the time I couldn't see as many inserts available by cheaper Asian suppliers. That may have changed & something I'd consider now.

I haven't had as much luck with triangle inserts & I just cant figure out why. Theoretically they offer the same nose geometry & selection. Someone said they are technically turning inserts & so the mill head geometry needs to be tweaked as opposed to how they make them.. but I'm not quite convinced. I had a (bad clone) 3 insert 1.5" dia & it was crappy finish & gobbled more power than my 5". If you already use that triangle style, might be worth a look.

 

[Bofobo]

What type have you used? Some I've used in the past are much better than these examples, tho on my mini machines I have and use a couple of what you are showing but I never used them on a larger machine .. I tried to upload a picture but a quick e bay search for "indexable face mill" should bring up what I'm talking about, uses torx screws.