How do you guys sharpen your end mills?

Tool & cutter grinder?
Endmill fixture on a surface grinder?
Dedicated endmill sharpener?

4 days till I go pick up my Bridgeport.

RWL

On 2008-10-12, GeoLane at PTD dot NET GeoLane wrote:

How do you guys sharpen your end mills?

Tool & cutter grinder?
Endmill fixture on a surface grinder?
Dedicated endmill sharpener?

4 days till I go pick up my Bridgeport.


I do not sharpen them, but you asked a great question, I will be
watching for responses.

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GeoLane at PTD dot NET wrote in message
...

How do you guys sharpen your end mills?

Tool & cutter grinder?
Endmill fixture on a surface grinder?
Dedicated endmill sharpener?

4 days till I go pick up my Bridgeport.

RWL


Anything under 1/2" I pitch. The others I send out, it's cheap.

I checked around and found a company who advertised "form tool
grinding."
With the advent of CNC I surmised that their business had gone
downhill somewhat.
On the base of them doing somthing that brings in a few bucks VS
sitting on their ass waiting for work, I made an agreement where I
could bring in a bunch of my dull endmills and they would sharpen them
for an average price of $2.00 per cutter, prorated for size and number
of cutting ends.
Engineman

On Oct 11, 8:39�pm, "Buerste" wrote:
GeoLane at PTD dot NET wrote in messagenews:lcp2f4d6r64b58ldgp8r0fcfcpfdpk71q3@4ax .com...



How do you guys sharpen your end mills?

Tool & cutter grinder?
Endmill fixture on a surface grinder?
Dedicated endmill sharpener?

4 days till I go pick up my Bridgeport.

RWL

Anything under 1/2" I pitch. �The others I send out, it's cheap.

GeoLane at PTD dot NET wrote:

How do you guys sharpen your end mills?

Tool & cutter grinder?

I have a Cuttermaster. But I found it far more cost
effective to buy end mills on ebay. However, things are
changing there and I'm not seeing the deals I used to.
The Cuttermaster has been useful for making custom cutters,
but I might rethink sharpening again, for manual use.

Jon

wrote:

On the base of them doing somthing that brings in a few bucks VS
sitting on their ass waiting for work, I made an agreement where I
could bring in a bunch of my dull endmills and they would sharpen them
for an average price of $2.00 per cutter, prorated for size and number
of cutting ends.

That's a good deal. I tried a local guy one time when I was
real busy. He used to work for Robb Jack and I figured he
knew a thing or two. Gave him a bunch to sharpen, including
some large 2 flutes. On those, I told him to sharpen only
the sides and bottoms, no need to regash the centers. Well I
was rather shocked at the bill, and he'd not only regashed
all the big 2 flutes, but had way too much angle on the
bottom of the flutes. He told me he liked to get 50% of the
value of the end mill for sharpening. Since I hadn't asked
for a quote first, I just paid. I never called him back...


Jon

GeoLane at PTD dot NET GeoLane at PTD dot NET wrote:

Endmill fixture on a surface grinder?


Also use indexable cutters for roughing.

Wes

How do you guys sharpen your end mills?

I have a Cincinnati Monoset T&C grinder. sharpen my own cutters and can also
make most specialty ones. I wouldn't get one of these unless you want to
have making cutters be part of your hobby.

For most folks, get a surface grinder and an endmill end sharpening fixture.
sharpen the end only. if they are worse than that, toss them or send out to
a shop.

Karl

On Oct 11, 10:56*pm, GeoLane at PTD dot NET GeoLane at PTD dot NET
wrote:
How do you guys sharpen your end mills?

Tool & cutter grinder? *
Endmill fixture on a surface grinder?
Dedicated endmill sharpener?
RWL

I save the new ones for aluminum and the occasional careful finishing
cut on steel. Mostly I pick up used, dull, sometimes rusty US-made
cutting tools second-hand and resharpen them, partly because they are
good steel and partly from a recycling ethic.

I bought one of these to grind the lengthwise edges;
http://www.wttool.com/product-exec/p...ter_WT_Import_

It does work but not well, setup is fussy and the stop finger and its
support are poorly made. I had better results from a spring finger
made from a hacksaw blade.

These do a good job on the end flutes;
http://www.nolansupply.com/small_images/67677143.jpg
These are the first images that Google showed, not where I actually
bought them.

Put a straightedge across the end of a new end mill and notice that
the edges are slightly angled. The fixture grinds a larger angle which
could be a problem if you want to drill a flat-bottomed hole, though
it doesn't affect milling a pocket.

I grind a small bevel on the outer corner with the fixture at the 30
degree tilt, which seems to make the end mill stay sharp longer.

Since it's easier to grind the ends than the edges, I rough out steel
with plunge cuts and only use the side edges to finish.

Good luck with your new mill.
Jim Wilkins

On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:32:36 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

I checked around and found a company who advertised "form tool
grinding."
With the advent of CNC I surmised that their business had gone
downhill somewhat.
On the base of them doing somthing that brings in a few bucks VS
sitting on their ass waiting for work, I made an agreement where I
could bring in a bunch of my dull endmills and they would sharpen them
for an average price of $2.00 per cutter, prorated for size and number
of cutting ends.
Engineman

On Oct 11, 8:39?pm, "Buerste" wrote:
GeoLane at PTD dot NET wrote in messagenews:lcp2f4d6r64b58ldgp8r0fcfcpfdpk71q3@4ax .com...
snip
=============
I am looking for someone to form grind a radius on each side of a
1/4 inch square M2 lathe tool bit to make a involute gear cutter.
The cutters should have radial relief so I can touch up the
cutter by lightly dressing the top.

While a circular arc is not an involute, the approximation is
closer than the approximation you get with the B&S gear cutters
for a range of tooth counts.

Law's book has a table that shows the diameter of the arc, the
C/C distance and the distance from the end of the lathe tool bit
to the centerline connecting the centers of the arcs.
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&sear...n%20Law&page=1
http://www.campbelltools.com/workshopseries.htm [and several
other sources in the US]

for table click on
http://users.rcn.com/sas.ma.ultranet...Dimensions.xls


Unka' George [George McDuffee]
-------------------------------------------
He that will not apply new remedies,
must expect new evils:
for Time is the greatest innovator: and
if Time, of course, alter things to the worse,
and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better,
what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman.
Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).

GeoLane at PTD dot NET wrote:
How do you guys sharpen your end mills?

Tool & cutter grinder?
Endmill fixture on a surface grinder?
Dedicated endmill sharpener?

4 days till I go pick up my Bridgeport.

RWL

I did this a number of years ago. I have a couple of fixtures that
make it possible to do
right on the Bridgeport.

BUT ----

I don't do it anymore. I stopped buying HSS endmills, and use some
solid carbide,
some indexable carbide arbors, and M42 Cobalt cutters. These only
cost cents more than plain HSS, and last at least 3-4 X longer.
1/8" solid carbide end mills can be had in packs of 10 or 12 for
about $4 now. (Maybe this has gone up lately, I haven't bought any
since last year.) For heavy stock removal, the indexable carbide
arbors are totally amazing, they shower the room with chips, and you
just rotate the inserts when dull.

Jon

On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:56:45 -0400, GeoLane at PTD dot NET GeoLane at
PTD dot NET wrote:


How do you guys sharpen your end mills?

Tool & cutter grinder?
Endmill fixture on a surface grinder?
Dedicated endmill sharpener?

4 days till I go pick up my Bridgeport.

RWL


I send mine out, $2 for up to 1/2" $3.50 for 1"

I have a tool and cutter grinder that I use less than 1/year, only if
I need a special. I'm going to move it over to the unheated warehouse
side of the shop to make room for a CNC lathe. I still feel a need to
keep it just in case.
Thank You,
Randy

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