I have started putting the monoset together from the pile of attachments and trying (dry) its operation.
To say that I am impressed with this machine, would be to say nothing. It can even do helical movement. It also comes with a super high speed attachment, I guess for ID grinding or some such.
I find it very difficult to part with this machine and may keep it around for a while.
I am wondering, at this point, if I can use this monoset to sharpen drills. Also, with the monoset, I really do not need any other T&C grinder. I really need to read the manuals.
I agree. The monoset is the most versatile T&C grinder there is. I'm not parting with mine.
I built a drill grinding attachment for very large drills using the monoset. It sharpens them perfectly and really reduces the HP needed to cut. Plus, the holes don't drill oversize. It uses the exact same concept as the very cheap general drill grinding attachment. Truthfully, for general drill grinding, this method is just too slow. I use an M2 darex just like yours for small bits. And normally grind large drills by hand.
The monoset can provide eccentric primary relief on the side flutes of endmills. Something you only get with high end endmills like Hanita. The Hanita website has several pages explaining the advantage of this. I have a table and can explain the setup to you AFTER you've ground a few endmills conventionly to get the hang of it.
There is almost no tool that cannot be resharpened or fabricated from scratch with a monoset.
You can sharpen drills, taps, reamers, countersinks, counterbores, toolbits, chasers and form cutters. Hold on to it for a while and see how much you use it. Consider offering sharpening as a sideline in case your auction business gets slow.
Hi Tom, thanks. Re: providing services: What follows is my opinion, which, as you know, is often wrong. I visit many places and see many people and businesses and what I see is that people who offer such services are generally doing badly. Economics of "providing commodity service" is a very tough business. The only thing worse is being in "commodity manufacturing", with the added burden of expensive capital equipment and more environmental regulation.
When I bought a building and started working for myself full time this year, I swore that I will not a) be making any goods and b) be providing any services. I decided to do only websites and horse trading and nothing else.
HOWEVER, I buy and sell a lot of tooling, such as drills, end mills, and taps. I have opportunities to buy lots more.
This is where a need for a T&C grinder comes. If I can come up with a cheap to operate process of tool grinding, I could make a lot of money buying, sharpening and selling metalworking cutting tools. Not just "here's a tray of used drills AS IS" but "here's a set of professionally resharpened drills". That could, possibly, make me money and would be a fun thing to do when "auctions are slow".
That can be very proffitable. I would visit local scrap yards and inform them that you buy used drills etc. If you can find a retired grinder hand and hire him part time he can teach you all the tricks. There are a couple of guys on ebay that are selling resharpend tooling, it should be easy to check if that stuff is selling enough to make it worthwhile.
When I salvage a chipped end mill, rather than wear down the surface grinder wheel I grind the end flat on a pedestal grinder and rough out the 30 degree back relief.
End mills are easy, though a good start. The amount of dish toward the center doesn't appear to be critical. If you want a 'learning experience' try sharpening taps with a circular relief and then test them on steel by hand.
In my experience, the monoset is not a good choice for low cost resharpening. A cinnci #2 with an air bearing spindle can resharp an endmill in 1/2 the time, for example.
I do think the monoset is a great choice for an HSM type because of its extreme versatility. If you have the tooling, there is not a custom cutter that is over its abilty to fabricate.
Karl. When grinding the ends of center cutting end mills, do you grind one flute slightly beyond center and the other flute a little less than to the center in order to make it center cutting. I recall a discussion by T Nut regarding this awhile back. If so, how much beyond the center do you go?
The endmill fixture I have and all those I've seen rotate the endmill on its axis to grind all the flutes identically. As long as the grinding wheel has sharp dressed edges you can crank the table feed in and examine the cut until opposing flute edges practically meet, definitely closer than drill bit edges. If you accidentally go past center the last flute sharpened will be like that.
Sometimes the flute geometry is offset so that the edges aren't quite radial and won't meet. The gap either rubs or leaves a small protruding stub in the middle that gets knocked down periodically. An asymmetrical hand-ground Dremel slit across the center seems to help by pushing the stub around until it breaks off.
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.