6 blade pen mill cutter heads

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Daniel

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Just dropping in to let everyone know that I have not forgotten this buy.
I am waiting for money to transfer from my pay pal account to my banking account which seems to be taking forever. I hope to have the order paid for tomorrow.
Their are still two orders that have not been paid for. I am ordering the heads anyway.
Expect about 4 weeks for delivery on these heads. They are coming from China, will have to actually be made once the order is placed, and are connected to an order from another customer.
 

W3DRM

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Just wondering why everyone is ordering so many of these cutter heads... Do they wear down quickly or lose their cutting edges that fast? I am assuming they are not carbide-tipped but can't they be sharpened?

I've never used a mill before so I'm new to these items. I have a Shopsmith and use the disc sander to trim down my blanks but since the price was right, I wanted to try out the mills and see how they do compared to the disc sander.
 

Daniel

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Don, I've never done a survey but here is my best guess as to why 4 heads is such a popular number. the basic pen mill set comes with 4 pilots and 1 head. most of them going to be the older 4 blade variety of cutter head. getting 4 6 blade heads lets yo put one head on each pilot and not have to swap that 1 head from pilot to pilot.
I have had comments by several people that although the heads can be sharpened at the price they get them from the group buy they do not bother. They sort of cost about as much as a set of new bushings this way.
Finally I take the one head per pilot thing to extreme. I have made myself 21 different pilots and have a head on each of them.

then there is the price.
 

Daniel

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I placed the order today. It took an awefully long time to get money from pay pal to my checking account. Don't know why they are in the same town (That was like a joke only not funny)
OK here are details as I know them, for anyone not interested stop here and have a wonderful day.
Our order is helping fill in the min order quantity for another customer. So in ways our order is tied to that other customer getting there share paid for. And there has been a little glitch. although the other company payed for there part there was some mix up in transaction numbers. An example is I send money to Vera via Western Union. that payment has a MCTN number issued to it. I than have to e-mail that number to Vera so that they can collect the money at their end. Hopefully it has all been straightened out by now.
Ifit has the cutter heads have not even been made yet. So it will still be up to 4 weeks for them to get made packaged and shipped. Not fast I know but remember it is cheap.
Once I have them it will take up to anouther week for me to get them in the mail and be at your door. I will post updates as I get them and feel free to ask if you are getting a little antsy about them.
The way I understand it these are being shipped right to my door so I can avoid !!!!!Sacramento!!!!!

Oh if I seem a little off my game in the next few days, It's because I just found out today that I am bing sued. It does not have anything to do with group buys or antyhing it is by a doctor. I think I have a fair chance of showing that He tried to pull a fast one and get paid twice for the same service. Will know more tomorrow after I talk to an attourney. Anyway I am pretty much in a rage right now so please bear with me.
 
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W3DRM

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Don, I've never done a survey but here is my best guess as to why 4 heads is such a popular number. the basic pen mill set comes with 4 pilots and 1 head. most of them going to be the older 4 blade variety of cutter head. getting 4 6 blade heads lets yo put one head on each pilot and not have to swap that 1 head from pilot to pilot.
I have had comments by several people that although the heads can be sharpened at the price they get them from the group buy they do not bother. They sort of cost about as much as a set of new bushings this way.
Finally I take the one head per pilot thing to extreme. I have made myself 21 different pilots and have a head on each of them.

then there is the price.

Well, guess I should have thought about getting one for each pilot too. It sure makes a lot of sense and, it also minimizes wear on each one. So, next time you put together another mill order, you'll probably see me in there with the rest of the folks... :biggrin:
 

Daniel

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I've been getting quite a few massages asking about the progress of the mills.
they are not even expected to be finished getting made until Dec 24th. after that things should speed up quite well but even that is provided that nothing delays them. basically they are in line waiting their turn to be machined. I am expecting it to take a week to 10 days from the time I am notified they have shipped until i have them to you.
 

wolftat

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Just wondering why everyone is ordering so many of these cutter heads... Do they wear down quickly or lose their cutting edges that fast? I am assuming they are not carbide-tipped but can't they be sharpened?

quote]
I order a lot of cutter heads because it is cheaper and easier for me than sharpening them, and I work with a lot of kids and those heads tend to see more abuse than the one that are in my own shop.I have found that these heads are just as good as the ones from any of the other suppliers, just less expensive. They can be easily sharpened unless you are as lazy as I am, even then you can send them out to Paul or someone for sharpening if you want
 

Daniel

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Update, I received an e-mail this morning from Vera. Our order will be completed and shipped by this weekend. I know I know way to late to help with all those Christmas orders.

Of all the extras I ordered trying to stay ahead of demand, I only have one extra set still available. I will have extra cutter heads available for some time since I still have about 60 of them. I am hoping to just place an order for 100 sets after the first of the year. I will have to see how everything looks once all the current buys settle down. I sort of have my pay pal account going in four different directions right now and am afraid to even touch it.
 

Daniel

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Keith, I had ordered 20 extra sets out of my pocket and they have all been spoken for. And that was before I have even received the shipment. I also ordered 100 extra heads and only have about 40 of them left. I will do my best to get more of these ordered or even do another group buy soon. I have 3 buys going all at once and need to let things slow down a bit.

For everyone. LATEST INFO. our pen mills where ready to ship last weekend just like Vera had said. the problem is that the drill bit group buy was short a couple of bits. they are supposed to be sent with this order as well. turns out they where out of stock. So in short the entire order has been held up a week over 3 drill bits. I didn't find out about that until yesterday or I would have told her to send the shipment without the bits. as it is they should ship on Friday our time.
 

Daniel

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Got the e-mail this morning that the order has been shipped by DHL. I'm thinking about three days to reach me. I have a bottle neck of orders to mail. I have the mills and the 50 cals all coming together at once. i will be working on mailing all the 50 cal orders int he next couple of days so hopefully I will not be delayed in putting the mill orders together. Keep in mind in all I have well over 100 packages to get mailed. I'll do my best and will let all of you know when the package has arrived.
 

Daniel

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The order arrived today and all looks good.
Give me a couple of days to get them packed and in the mail.
Thanks all for being patient with this buy. considering the order was placed in November this has been a long, long wait. i appreciate everyone not burying me in e-mails.
 

vera123

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Very thankful and appreciated for all of you! Sorry for the delay because of the heavy production! Hope you could understand this time! Hope all of you would make more success in 2009!
 

W3DRM

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Minden, NV, USA.
Very thankful and appreciated for all of you! Sorry for the delay because of the heavy production! Hope you could understand this time! Hope all of you would make more success in 2009!

Wow, how often do we hear from the off-shore contact directly? That's pretty impressive. I'm sure they will get more sales in the future as a result the good customer service and communications shown during these transactions!
 

Daniel

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I just want you all to know that you don't even know half the story when it comes to the service from Vera. She pays attention to every detail at every turn and often sends me the answer to questions posted here before I am able to ask them myself. Extremely attentive to this group. All of our buys have been below this companies min order and Vera has single handedly made that possible. Finding larger orders we can tag onto etc. It is really nice working with her.
 
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Daniel,
Sure wish I'd have seen this thread before. If you have any extras, please let me know. I'd take up to 5 !
I'll try to visit this group buy section more often...:redface:

Gregory of HopinForAMillOrFive Forest
 

Daniel

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Greg, PM sent.
For everyone else. all orders have been packed up and labeled as of yesterday. I will drop all of them off at the post office tomorrow. (42 participants in this buy)

Future plans? I was expecting to turn around and order 100 sets to keep on hand. but things got a little muddled. I still see the light at being able to do this by the end of February. so keep your fingers crossed. hopefully there will be a full time source of low cost heads and sets soon.
 

Daniel

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Greg, You are welcome. although it appears my attempt at having people covered was not much of a bandaid to the being left out of the group buys problem. Believe it or not I still have orders for mill sets coming in. this is 3 months after the buy started. I mention this just to let others know just how serious a problem it is. I answer more e-mails from a group buy telling people there are no more than I do taking orders. Most of you know I have said a lot about this in the past. and I am doing what I can to fix it. In the interest of that I am trying to place an order for 100 sets and 200 ea of the 4 blade and 6 blade heads. This order does not meet the min order requirment but Vera has sent me a quote for it anyway and will do what she can to get it through. My biggest problem at this moment is that I do not have all the money to place it. There are a couple of solutions to this in the works. pre paid orders could be one of them. but we are back to the long wait thing again.
The wall is starting to crack folks, really it is. at least 20 people where able to buy pen millsets in this last buy that had not seen it in time. that is 20 people better than before.
 

W3DRM

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Oct 22, 2007
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Daniel,

My package arrived yesterday! Thanks for doing this. Will order two more 6-blade cutter heads if you place another group order.

BTW, the pilot set and the heads look really nice and appear to of very high quality too. Nice clean machining on the cutters, no jagged edges at all. Haven't used them as yet but most likely will this afternoon once my glue dries.

Thanks again!
 
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wolftat

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My package just arrived cross country. Thank for doing this.
Vera, thank you also for getting this order in.
 
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davinci27

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Franklin, GA
Got mine and works great. Much better than my 4 blade mill. Thanks for ordering a few extras and letting me get in after the fact.

Ben
 
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