Howdy all! I have been searching the net high and low for a couple days now and have yet to come across a style of end mill that is shown as being part of the tooling kit that 80 Percent Arms sells. It seems to be a long reach, short loc, square end mill. At least going by the pictures. When typing in ALL of the terms: "long reach", "short loc" (or a physical length such as 1/2" or .500" loc) along with end mil... I pretty much receive a results page with none of what I am looking for. Even going so far as to try to manually search Grainger and other such sites just yields more results than I know how to pick through.

Am I using the wrong search terms or descriptions?  Does anyone happen to know of a supplier for these? Obviously 80 Percent Arms has to purchase these through someone in order to sell them as a kit. I could use them for milling out my lowers but I was hoping to buy a variety of sizes- making a small but complete set. I can see where they'd come in handy in other projects.

Hopefully this post made sense... at almost 1am I'm lucky to be able to type anything at all! lol

Thanks all!!

Check out amazon. They have tons. Type in dia. And leg th and material. Some of them will say 20 items in this Family. That's where u can see loc  flutes, etc. All my USA tooling I use for 80% milling I get through them. I use Niagara Cutters mostly.

Hope this helps.

MSC Direct is a good resource

eBay.  There are a number of sellers offering all manner of HSS and carbide end mills in any size you could want, and usually at very good prices.  I get most of my cutters there from a handful of sellers, depending on who has what I need at that moment.

If you're wanting a cutter to do 80% lowers, this is the one I like:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251642206793

Of course, if you're using a jig, most of them are set up for 3/8" cutters that have a LOC which allows smooth shank to travel along the jig; this 7/16 cutter gives the proper .218" radius in the FCG pocket, but will cut your jig just as easily as the lower.

Wherever you get the tooling in my experience try and stay with US made mills and bits. If that just doesn't work roll your mills and bits on a piece of glass and make sure they are true. Also always check with dial indicator or calipers. Just cause it is stamped 3/8" does not mean it is. I have seen 3 diff measurements on 3 diff 5/16" drill bits! So far amazon has everything I have ever needed. Very good prices and with Prime eligible you have free 2 day shipping.

Paso and Sixtysix-

Thanks so much for the quick replies!! I didn't think anyone would be up this late!

Finding tooling in general hasn't really been a problem for me. As far as basic end mills go I have a pretty well rounded inventory. I was concerned more with obtaining the style of end mill in the pictures of the 80 Percent Arms jig  PDF. They are a just  a style of end mill I have yet to use/encounter. Not sure if posting the links to other sites is allowed but the picture is found here: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0218/5770/files/Jig_Manual_80_Percent_Arms.pdf

But as far as ebay and Amazon go, especially Amazon, I had never even thought to try there! A quick search did reveal this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230961772528?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

But it is 2 inches or so longer than the ones pictured in the PDF, longer than I see as being practical. Also at that cost... I don't foresee myself building up much of a collection of sizes. But regardless- thanks for pointing me towards both sites- I'll have to see if I can refine my search results and see what I can find!

Ok. I just looked at the directions. I scrip the pattern on the plates into my lower. I never try and run my mill shaft into the side of jig. It will booger up your jig even running the smooth shaft against it. So u use the jig but after I get real close I pull the top plates. Then I mill right up to the line I scribed. I just barely take the line. Also all triggers are a very small amount diff in width. So when i think I'm close I try and insert the hammer and trigger upside down. It's usually too tight at first so I take just a hair more until they fit with no slop

Are you using a real mill?  If so, you don't need a jig at all.  

I made a cheat sheet to do 80% lowers with 7/16 and 5/6 cutters, radii already accounted for.  I have never used a jig, can finish a lower in under a half hour.  And really, if you want it super clean, you need at least 1.5" LOC; you do your final pass taking off 0.005" or so running at the full 1.249" DOC.

I use the jig only to drill hammer, trigger safety selector hole. I started out using the jig for FCP. Now I just scribe using the jig as a pattern. Then I do the milling. My final finish  pass I just take half the scribe line. Then I test fit trigger and hammer.  I do use the jig for my depth gauge. I used calipers when I did my 1st lower and scribed both depths on all 4 corners of jig. That way no matter what I have both depths where I can set my depth gauge on my mill to what I need for the shelf and the floor. As long as my side plates are all the way down square in my mill vise never have to measure depth. Works pretty slick. I have pics of my marks on my jig I will post if anyone wants to see

Here is the one I used MSC Direct.  Don't know if you plan on using a router with their jig or not, but this worked well for me.  You can also order one from 80 percent arms website, I believe they sell them here..  Modulus Arms also has them here.

use-enco.com

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Use the search form to find exactly what you want. It's a very good search tool that allows you to use drop-menus to narrow your search by specific characteristics, at each step you can see how many products match.

Example: I just searched "end mill" and selected "standard". Next I'm presented with a page with drop-down options for the following categories. It lets you quickly find exactly what you want, or a suitable alternative.

View Products Number of Products : 563

Brand

Size

Length of Cut

Overall Length

Number of Flutes

Rotation

Material

Finish/Coating

Style

80% arms also sells the bit.  they have it specially made for their jig (although it's not uncommon for machinists to make their own tools for a particular job especially when there are lots of runs of the same item).

I have not compared their price to commercial prices for similar items.  That would be interesting to see if they have a big markup.

R/Matel

Paso-

Those are great ideas!! I'd never thought of doing things that way!! And I especially love the idea of the trigger trial.

I wasn't looking for the end mills for only my lower projects, at least not entirely. I have a verrrrry old, manual, milling machine and some of the projects I had considered attempting involved a few deeper cuts- requiring several passes. I was considering caution on my part in the respect that as I make more and more passes, milling deeper and deeper that I might slip a bit and screw up. Honestly now, as I type this out, I realize that it's the same situation as using the jig... soooo I just had an epiphany. Never even thought of it in the same respect. So hey- Thanks again for the tips and for the info!!!

I'd like to see your jig setup!  Paso resident?  Atascadero here.

I have bought a couple counter bore's and pilots from these guys.

http://drillsandcutters.com/