Ran my old 1998 Bridgeport with dull end mills for 6 months, swapped to fresh carbide and my cycle time dropped 40 seconds per part

Caleb Rivera · 2026-10-18T01:55:03.903784+00:00

I got lazy about tool changes on the old Bridgeport and kept running the same 3/8 end mills way past when I should have pulled them (you know how it goes when the job is running and nothing is on fire). Swapped in fresh carbide at the start of last month, and the same 6061 plate job that took me 4 minutes 20 now runs in 3 minutes 40, with way less chatter too. Anyone else surprised how much dull tooling was quietly costing them, and how do you track your hours per insert?

🐿️Pinecone Attack

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Ran my old 1998 Bridgeport with dull end mills for 6 months, swapped to fresh carbide and my cycle time dropped 40 seconds per part | CNC Operators - Pinecone Attack