Tool Cutter Grinder

For most home shop use HSS is far better than carbide. Carbide only comes into it's own at high speeds and high feed rates, something that most small lathes can't manage. Another reason for not using carbide in the home shop is carbide doesn't lend itself to creeping up on a size.

In industry the last finishing cut is usually of a depth equal to a roughing cut on a small lathe. Home shop guys because of smaller machines, inexperience or hesitation tend to creep up to finished size and to do this you need a sharp tool [ or so Gert tells me - I wouldn't know ]

Plus points with HSS are the ease in which it can be ground and the sharp edge you can achieve on it. The novice can also experiment with tip radius, a point [ pun intended ] that is often overlooked.

To large a radius on the tip can cause chatter and digging in, too small, i.e. knife edge, and you get the plowed field effect.

One thing to take into account on a bench grinder is that if the tool rest is at the centre of the wheel and you are grinding on the front of the wheel your ground face will not be at 0 degrees as you thought. This is because the top of the 1/2" or whatever tool is above centre and the radius of the wheel comes into play.

This is something that's known about and used on tool and cutter grinders to effect. Most T&C books publish a table to show you at what point above centre will equal a certain angle for a given diameter wheel, so just having a rest that stays parallel but can adjust up and down will get most angle on a simple bench grinder. I can look tables out if there is an interest.

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

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Joe Brown Oct 24, 9:55 am show options From: "Joe Brown" Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 08:55:02 GMT Subject: Re: Tool Cutter Grinder

Thanks, although I have the magazine I hadn't remembered the article so I will have a look and see if I can adapt the head - any ideas are good ideas. I also agree with your change to HSS, far more flexible and unless you are turning something more exotic HSS works well with mild steel on my hobby type of lathe and at speeds I feel a (little bit) in control of.

Thanks Keith

John Stevens> >

John

Thanks, as usual I hadn't thought of the centre height affect on the ground angle. I will need to include some sort of adjustment to alter the relative wheel/tool centre height, I can start to see why these things are not so simple to produce. I suppose I could use the front of a cup wheel (but have only thought they would be of use for finishing, the diamond ones anyway). If I'm doing endmills etc most of the time I thought they might only need a "lick". Should I expect to need to remove some serious stock sometimes? Otherwise I guess, a chipped tooth would render my scheme useless. Good job you guys are here to help think these things through. If you have any tables/links I would certainly appreciate it.

Best regards Keith

hi, heres a tool and cutter grinder i made, on first page

hope you like it, bil

-- blueswar

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Bill Thanks, very interesting site you have there with lots of ideas of how to make things without spending a fortune. I see I shall have plenty to read and study today. Just happens that deep in a dark corner somewhere I have an old XL lathe with a broken headstock casting so you might have identified a possible use for it. I will have to dig it out and see if the slides are reasonable. Do you sharpen the sides as well as the ends of endmills? Thanks again for the ideas it has certainly got the old brain working.

Best regards

Keith

Aarrgghhh!!!!

A pop-under that got past the pop-up blocker.

Why do sites do that? If I say no to pop-ups/pop-unders, I expect not to have them. If they pop up, they do NOT get my business.

Interesting site, but I can't abide the pop-ups, so I will probably never visit it again. :-(

Best regards, Dave Colliver.

hi keith, i at the moment have only sharpened the cutting face and no

yet the sides, im going to experiment sharpening the side of th flutes, ,, bil

-- blueswar

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