Garr solid carbide Tooling

[DavidB]

Hi guys this one is more for the USA users. How do you USA guys rate Garr tooling?

Its made in the USA but I don't hear a lot of you guys talking about it. I buy all my solid carbide milling cutters from Garr.

Price of the Garr tooling is much better than the other major tooling companies down here in Australia.

Cheers Dave

[Newbeeee™]

We buy a lot of Garr too. And we're in the UK

[JAMMAN]

For some reason I am disappointed every time I use Garr. It works and is good, OSG seems to last longer in side by sides for the same buck or less.

 

I guess disappointed is harsh, I'll back down to not impressed.

 

Harvey impresses me. Every time.

[Mjölnir]

i was a fan of harvey until i started using shrink fit tool holders. their shank tolerances blow chunks. probably because they have numerous suppliers now and you don't know what you're really getting.

 

for graphite i stick mainly with sp3, crystalumme, and rob jack. for metal, sgs, niagara, m.a. ford.

[Machineguy]

My take:

Harvey for the small stuff. The long neck end mills  are great. I only use there corner round tools. They last and are repeatable tool to tool.

SGS, OSG for steel. Ive had the  OSG glowing red, and it still cuts great.

Garr-- Aluminum only. The end mills for steel don't hold up.

[Guest]

I have used the Garr VRX endmill in dynamic paths in 316sst...I was getting good tool life and cutting cycle time....jaws dropped

 

I have other preferences but if Garr is what someone wants to use I am not afraid to go with them.. 

[jlw™]

We use a lot of Garr endmills. I prefer some others but when you factor in price Garr is a good deal. Like JP, I always put the VRX on the tool list as they are coated. My experience varies tho as tool life is the same. That, or we just run them too long. IDK.

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

I generally use Harvey for <1/4" and Helical for >1/4".

[DavidB]

I use the Alu Master from Garr in Aluminium and they are great. I too buy VRX cutters for steel, S.S  and Tool Steel but I must say the tool life is not great. We don't seem to have the variety of tool suppliers you guys in the USA have. 

We have the major Tooling Companies Seco, Iscar, Tungalloy, Guhring but Sandvik and Kennametal down here only work through distributors which is not working for me.

I've never heard of Harvey, SGS, OSG

 

JParis I'd be interested in your cutting data for 316 as I cut a fair bit of it using the Garr VRX.

Cheers

[Bob W.]

I had a project where I ran Hanita cutters and in a pinch I would substitute Garr because the supplier was really close.  They were crap and had about 60% of the tool life of Hanita.  We switched to Imco and they made Hanita look like crap and that makes Garr crappier than crap.  I would only use them to bore out a broken tap...

[meshow_40]

We use some Garr V4 and V5's for 17-4, titanium, and cobalt chrome.  It's what we have stocked and there are many different configurations that are usually available next day if we don't have it.  I'll 2nd the IMCO statement we have just finished testing some of their IPC7 and IPC9 end mills and they work fantastic, they have blown all other end mills that we have tried out of the water on a cost per part basis.

[specv]

I had a project where I ran Hanita cutters and in a pinch I would substitute Garr because the supplier was really close.  They were crap and had about 60% of the tool life of Hanita.  We switched to Imco and they made Hanita look like crap and that makes Garr crappier than crap.  I would only use them to bore out a broken tap...

 

Bob, thats one of my favorite uses for a Garr endmill! Seriously we only use Garr for tools that need to be modified with a special angle, step or radius  and we don't want to butcher a high performance endmill. Unless IMCO has changed in the last few years (and maybe they have) they didn't hold a candle to Helical or SGS Z-carb endmills i put against them on 17-4 stainless.

[DavidB]

Man you guys have some choices. I see Titain uses Imco I don't even know if they are sold down here. Where are they made?

Cheers

[Mr. M]

Imco is what we use for a lot of steel and stainless. The big issue with them has been poor inventory but rumor has it they are expanding. Right now I'm getting ready to test some Widin endmills that have gotten good reviews.

[gms1]

Garr is about 2 hours from where I am and we spend a ton of money on their tools. V5, VRX, drills, chamfer mills, standards, extended length you name it we buy it. Special tools are easy and quick as well as we have quite a few specials we order routinely. The biggest thing for us is its always in stock.

 

They of course aren't the greatest thing since sliced bread but it's all about what you need to accomplish and what you want to pay to do it. This place wouldn't function without garr tools.

[jeff]

 

I've never heard of OSG

 

That's very hard to believe.  I guess they don't think AUS is a big enough market for their products?

[Bob W.]

The big thing with Imco is they use top grade carbide and they are very consistent from lot to lot.  We have some production jobs where we are pushing the tools to 99% and they last 30 minutes with about 5% breakage.  We were getting the same results with another brand but there was a lot where the carbide quality was toward the bottom of their tolerance (but still within their spec) and we had to slow the entire project down 30% because the breakage was 80% at 30 minutes.  We are running a shop rate of $275 per hour on this project so the crappy lot cost us $82 per hour.  I wouldn't save $15 per tool to cost myself $82 per hour in productivity.  Economics 101.  I try to buy the best, run them hard, and get my money's worth.

[g huns]

i was a fan of harvey until i started using shrink fit tool holders. their shank tolerances blow chunks. probably because they have numerous suppliers now and you don't know what you're really getting.

 

for graphite i stick mainly with sp3, crystalumme, and rob jack. for metal, sgs, niagara, m.a. ford.

 

We switched to Harvey for a diamond coated 1/8 ball. Our old supplier was having trouble keeping us stocked. We ran them for a couple months, they cut good. Tool life was great. When our shiny new 5X Roeders showed up and we loaded one in it, the program wouldn't run. Operator couldn't figure out why. Turned out the laser was measuring the tool diameter as well as the length. The program called for a .125 end mill, the Harvey was .123.

 

I shudder to think how many trodes got cut with a .123 when I programmed a .125.

 

Their catalog clearly states the tolerance is +.000/-.002. As long as they don't fluctuate, we'll probably keep using them.