On Sat, 02 Oct 2010 21:37:49 -0500, Ignoramus6607
wrote:

Someone is offering me a lot of appx. 300 lbs of used HSS endmills,
which are neatly sorted by size and need resharpening, for $75.

Let's say that I had an end mill sharpener like a Darex V90 or
whatever. Realistically, how long does it take to resharpen an end
mill (I would hire someone) and how much can I get per dozen of
"professionally" sharpened end mills, say in 1/4" size.

i


Hey Iggy,

You've had quite a few good pro and con replies so far, mostly "con".
I don't do any end-mill sharpening for myself (not qualified!!). On
the other hand, 75 bucks for 400 pounds sounds tempting, even if you
only sorted out 100 good ones. And if there is any of it in the
batch, carbide scrap is going for about $6.50 per pound
....http://www.jtsmach.com/jtswebshop/scrap_carbide.asp

One question I would be asking before you consider anything else, is
what quantity of the end mills are "plain", versus those with corner
radius or ball-noses and other special shapes or those that may be
broken, any of which may not be "doable" to sharpen on the Darex.

A friend of mine in tool & die the has a nice Cincinnati Universal T&C
grinder with an air-bearing end-mill holder. He will sharpen larger
ones for his shop, say over 3/4", or down to 1/2" if they are special
like really long... (read expensive)... and then just changes the tool
size description in the tool CNC library/changer, and that way it
doesn't change "offsets" (which have a slightly different CNC
programming purpose). They don't diddle with sharpening standard
smaller stuff, and make the special small stuff with a Deckel SO to
suit the job, mostly for draft on carbon for EDM.

Take care.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.