Tool Life Expectations?

[JAZZCNC]

Well not 5yrs but certainly longer than 2hrs from HSS. I want at least 6-8hrs from HSS and I get couple of days cutting from carbide, obviously depends on the finish your looking for to when you call them knackerd. I always finish with a 0.2mm finish pass.

Now The secret to great tool life is to use 3F Carbide roughing cutters then finish with HSS or Carbide tools. This way cutters last ages and the serated edge roughing cutters allow 3-5mm pass's with no problem. I also nearly always use 6mm tooling with 8mm being the max.

Cheap cutters are pointless I find and waste of money but I have had the Mario cutters before and they are ok and gave decent life I think, certainly no worse than others I've used.