Sharpening Mills
 

How does one go about sharpening an end mill? Any web pages on how to
do it? At the last place I worked I noticed a mobile sharpening service
van lurking around the model shop door once a week -- is this something
that even the pros routinely farm out?

And finally -- how do I, the home machinist with a need to sharpen one
or two end mills a year, go about getting them sharpened? Do I just
need to make friends with a machinist, are there places I can drop them
off? Buy resharpened ones? Where? Buy new ones from McMaster and
throw the old ones out?

Thanks.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Tim Wescott wrote:

How does one go about sharpening an end mill? Any web pages on how to
do it? At the last place I worked I noticed a mobile sharpening service
van lurking around the model shop door once a week -- is this something
that even the pros routinely farm out?

And finally -- how do I, the home machinist with a need to sharpen one
or two end mills a year, go about getting them sharpened? Do I just
need to make friends with a machinist, are there places I can drop them
off? Buy resharpened ones? Where? Buy new ones from McMaster and
throw the old ones out?

If you have a surface grinder then you can do a passable job on the
end of an end mill by using a 5C end mill grinding fixture. If you don't,
then I suggest you look up "tool and cutter grinding" in your Yellow
Pages. Getting an end mill sharpened usually costs from 25-50% of new
and if you just get them sharpened on the end then they will still be
the correct diameter. "Resharps" have usually been ground on the periphery
as well as the end. They're good for lots of stuff but unless you're real
sharp with a micrometer you have to deal with some uncertainty as to your
cutting tool width. There are techniques to handle this, of course. - GWE

Given that you can buy top quality M2 end mills for $1.50 up [see
http://www.wttool.com and many other sites ] it no longer pays to
get these sharpened.

You may want to invest in a mini-idexable end mill that takes
TPG22 inserts. See WholeSale tool SKU 1093-0820, 25 and 30 for
1/2, 9/16 and 5/8 diameters w/ 1/2 weldon shank. These are about
$12.00 each or $26.00 for all three. You get three tips per
insert and the TPG22 inserts go for about $2.50 each on sale and
the TPU22 inserts which work as well for me go about $0.90 to
$1.50 each on sale.

Wholesale Tool is about the cheapest place I have found for
endmills, better than HarborFreight and they have sizes / types
no one else lists. Also lots of Aerospace regrinds for $0.50 up.

GmcD


On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 14:40:49 -0800, Tim Wescott
wrote:
How does one go about sharpening an end mill? Any web pages on how to
do it? At the last place I worked I noticed a mobile sharpening service
van lurking around the model shop door once a week -- is this something
that even the pros routinely farm out?

And finally -- how do I, the home machinist with a need to sharpen one
or two end mills a year, go about getting them sharpened? Do I just
need to make friends with a machinist, are there places I can drop them
off? Buy resharpened ones? Where? Buy new ones from McMaster and
throw the old ones out?

Thanks.

Given that you can buy top quality M2 end mills for $1.50 up [see
http://www.wttool.com and many other sites ] it no longer pays to
get these sharpened.


I have tried "generic" endmills from enco and they leave a lot to
be desired. I have good luck with "quality imports" from various
places. I have been surprised to find some of these come from Japan,
some come from korea but I don't think any have come from china.

I bought some plain milling cutters from enco and they work well.
Made in poland I think.

I bought high quality carbide endmills from grainger in a
pinch and I am still using some of them after 8 years. Hard to
believe any cutter lasting that long, expecially since these
were the first endmills I ever bought and used only
on my sherline mill. I just used one last weekend to cut a lot of
416 stainless steel.

Enco regularly have name brand endmills on sale. I just bought
some small carbide endmills for about 5 bucks each. For a couple
bucks more, they have double ends.

I will have to check out wttool. thanks

chuck