Iscar tooling, what the hell is it made of?

Not sure of the steel any more, especially now days with the coatings that are on them.

You may find it less expensive overall to send the cutter to the companies that do the rebuild service as their core business. In this month's Cutting Tool Engineering there is a good article about these places.

Carbide Tool Service is one that comes to mind.

JR

The real issue is your trying to weld and repair the tool. Those things are super precision in their designs regarding balance, insert stability, and accuracy nowadays. One of the deal breakers is having an insert that rocks even a tiny amount or is not at the proper level in the pocket. I'd pass on that an get a new one.

-- Bill

While that is an option that we have used before, it's not a good option atm because of the turnaround on the tool. We have fixed plenty of tools here and they work just fine, this one tool just isn't working as expected.

Yea, I agree with ya there.. But the machine that is running it isn't that accurate in its old age, we are just using this tool to rough out the part. Any chips coming off the part is progress. Getting a new one isn't out of the question but it can get pretty expensive especially when a new one runs around 800 bucks. Older tools like this one we have repaired with no problem, its just this newer one that the weld just won't stick..

we've managed to use some busted tools missing an insert in regular roughing maching operations; just slow down the feed rate and make sure the other inserts are good- it's not pretty, but works. sometimes there is just no other way.

if I wasn't running 316 stainless, then yea, I could probably get away with that.. I have done it before in regular steel.. But had a button pusher do that on one of these blocks and he ended up melting the cutter because for some reason he doesn't like watching whats going on.. He actually took out two cutters from that one busted insert.. The cutter that busted the insert melted and moved the part.. He didn't check to see if the part moved, went to cut the next step down, didn't see that it was undercutting so when the tool got to the end of the path, it retracted out and wiped the second cutter out..

Why not call Iscar? Button pusher on the phone? Never had that problem. Are you MIG welding it using SS rod?

-- ~g~

We were pre-heating it, and welded it with 4140 tig rod. Which worked fine on the others..

Just now tried ss filler, I'll keep ya updated how this one works.. Waiting on the machinist to finish milling down the pocket.

My 1st guess would have been 4140. SS weld will leave the weld soft, maybe too soft to support the insert.

Thank You, Randy

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It's been a while since I made or repaired milling cutters; but when I did, they were either made out of 4140, 1095, or H13. Welding 4140 is easy enough; but the other two can be trickier. And, things may have changed a lot since I did it last.

KG

I wonder if your local distributor, or maybe the Iscar distributor for anyone else here, might be able to say what material your cutter is made of.

If the tool is disposable anyway, why not just braze an insert in place? When it goes dull, sweat it off and braze another one?

Not really disposable at 800 bucks a pop.. Just don't have the time to send them out and get them professionally done.. Hopefully when this rush job is done we can send em out.. Only time will tell..

A couple of my customers use Mitsubishi (?) cutter bodies. They get them for nothing as long as inserts are purchased on a regular basis.