Why use brazed carbide t slot cutters on the mill?

Brazed carbied t slot cutters are an ideal choice for small bench top milling machines with limited rigidity that would ordinarily have too much chatter to safely use solid carbide mills, but which need to cut harder materials than HSS cutters would be able to handle.

Brazed carbide t-slot cutters (also known as tungsten carbide tipped (TCT) t-slot cutters), consist of a High-Speed Steel shank, with welded tungsten carbide cutting tips. This combines the toughness and shatter resistance of high speed steel, with the durability and cutting power of carbide.

Advantages of brazed carbide t slot cutters

• Cheap, widely available and easily replaceable
• Maintains cutting edge much longer than high speed steel
  
• Usable both with drill chucks and collets.

Disadvantages of brazed carbide t slot cutters

• Carbide tips can't be replaced, nor feasibly re-sharpened without specialist tooling
• Not as sharp as HSS cutters
• Not as rigid as solid carbide, won't cut to as tight a tolerance.