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BINSTAK Extra Long Solid Carbide CNC Upcut Spiral Router Bit Wood Milling Cutter End Mill with TAC Long Life Coating for Woodworking
The TAC coating provide up to 2.5 times life than the uncoated
- Sturdy Durable
- Sharp Efficient
- Smooth Stable
Bob F.
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2025
and the bit lasted through the job. MDF is known for wearing out bits and this bit made it to the end. Not wanting to ruin an expensive American made bit on MDF, this cheap bit worked out. Not sure how much more it will cut (it was starting to burn the wood in the last few holes), so it may be toast.
Mikey
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2025
Seems to cut smoothly and quietly. Very sharp and you can’t beat the price for the value.I’m gonna stock up!
Daniel Patrick
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2025
When I first got into CNC routing, I was equal parts excited and overwhelmed. It’s not just cutting wood - it’s software, hardware, woodcraft, and electromechanical engineering all rolled into one, with a steep learning curve and plenty of opportunities to mess things up. My instructors told me, don’t go out and buy a massive kit of bits right away - start with the essentials and learn as you go.Naturally, I ignored that advice and did the exact opposite. Now, I’ve got a bunch of questionable bit choices rattling around in a drawer, collecting dust. But if there’s one thing I did figure out early, it’s that a 1/4” downcut spiral bit is an absolute go-to when you need a mix of material removal and clean edges. I didn’t pick up this BINSTAK TAC-coated version until recently, but I’ve used plenty of downcut bits before - so I knew what to expect. What I didn’t expect was just how much better this one would perform.✅ Pros✔ TAC coating noticeably improves performance – Runs cooler, reduces spindle strain, and extends bit life.✔ 1” cutting length is perfect for 3/4” plywood – No second pass needed, keeps top edges crisp.✔ Faster, more efficient cutting – A repeat job finished a full minute faster in a 12-minute window.✔ More forgiving than a compression bit – No need for ultra-precise depth settings to get clean results.✔ Solid build quality – Feels stiff and holds up under normal CNC workloads.❌ Cons❌ Too soon to judge long-term durability – Haven’t run it through a full lifespan test yet.❌ Not for deep pocketing or aggressive material removal – Like all downcut bits, chip evacuation is limited in deeper cuts.Final Verdict: This One’s Staying in the KitI haven’t put it through a torture test yet, but the early results are undeniably good. This bit runs cooler, reduces spindle strain, and maintains speed without sacrificing edge quality - all while being easier to work with than a compression bit.📷 (See the photo below—this product is the one with the TAC coating, and you can clearly see the difference compared to another great bit. Both are brand new in the image.)5 stars—this bit is officially in the rotation (so to speak).
CR
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2025
Tetra amorphous carbon thin film or “ta-C" is in a class of coatings sometimes referred to as Diamond Like Coating or DLC. These types of coatings, when applied correctly - which isn't exactly simple, have excellent properties like superior hardness, low friction coefficient, high temperature stability, etc. Coated tooling can be expected to last several times longer and can be used at feeds and speeds that would be unreasonable for uncoated carbide. When I saw this bit, I decided I would check it out as I have never used one this small that had a DLC. (It might be useful to know that I am an engineer and wrote a thesis on PVD.)The thickness of a coating is what (generally) dictates the color. You can expect ta:C to appear from the light rainbow hues here to almost black as it thicker (0.2 to 2 µm). It is very hard and works quite well for cutting edges.In my experience, DLC is most often applied to tooling that is used for cutting aluminum (with high Si content) to composites. Seeing it marketed for use in CNC woodworking is curious, to day the least. While it should work fine for this, the additional expense seems hard (pun intended) to justify. Unless you have your process dialed, tooling this size is much more likely to break than wear out. With wood, the range of material properties can vary a surprising amount - even over a single piece of material. Add to that the fact that there can be other, non-tree debris embedded, and you probably see what I am getting at here. With CNC, you'll probably want to run this pretty conservatively - just because it costs so much!This end mill is very nicely ground and the coating seems like it is an appropriate thickness for this. (I am not going to spend time in my lab to measure it, sorry!) My plan is to use this bit for inlay work on guitars. Having a small radius bit is useful for cleaning up corners and reducing the eventual hand work required for crisp edges. Since the actual performance of this tool will be measured over months or, hopefully, years, it is not possible to address whether it has the value to justify the price. However, if I happen to run into any problems, I will definitely update this review. In the absence of that, please assume I'm still happily cutting away!
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