End mill sharpening

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

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

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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

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

Also use indexable cutters for roughing.

Wes

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

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============= I am looking for someone to form grind a radius on each side of a

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.

for table click on

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).

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.

Jon

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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