Does the company you work for sharpen their own endmills & drills?

I have been looking at the DAREX Endmill Sharpener, they are simple to use, but very expensive! And difficult to find used!
http://www.darex.com/index.html

Eric

The company I work for sharpens their drill bits but not the endmills.

I find that a Drill Doctor is well worth the investment, especially when using HSS to drill stainless. However, I send my endmills out to be sharpened, as it only costs me something like $7 each on average, and I don't need it done that often. Basically, drill doctor = inexpensive, and I use it a lot; endmill grinder = expensive, and I wouldn't use it a lot.

Cheers

Matt

Nothing Under 1/4 End Mills

well in my garage we sharpen our own endmills and drills :D

I've a bench top t&c with an air spindle, perfect for endmills and I made a universal holder for drills and tools bits. Drills end up with what i call a faceted point, I've read that it is better although i can't really say. They do cut within a thou though and cut very smoothly. Its also handy for tools bits, ie perfect 60 degree threading tools, acme, etc. I wouldn't spend the money on an endmill sharpener OR drill sharpener - imo you need both, so its a small t&c grinder. my only regret was waiting so long to get one.

here's a pic of some drills i sharpened so you can see the drill point i was referring to

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b201/michael0100/universal%20swivel/pt2sharpeneddrills.jpg

Does anyone here know if an endmill can be sharpened on a surface grinder with a 5C Spin indexer? Seems like the flutes wouldn't be hard to grind, but you'd still need to grind the ends on a bench/pedestal machine.

How much does an endmill grinder cost in comparison?

Does anyone here know if an endmill can be sharpened on a surface grinder with a 5C Spin indexer? Seems like the flutes wouldn't be hard to grind, but you'd still need to grind the ends on a bench/pedestal machine.

How much does an endmill grinder cost in comparison?

1st off, the fixture for grinfing the ends of EndMills is really cheap, around $20 It fits right on a surface grinder, and has both primary & secondary angles as well as the hollow center angle built into the little fixture base! I has the ability to index for each flute too!

2nd, the endmill flute fixture is called an "Air Bar" or "Air Bearing", it holds a 5C collet or endmill holder, and floats on a cussion of air from an air compressor. They are $400 used if you can find one! They fit on the surface grinder, and require a flaring cup wheel, and a stationary finger to support the flute being ground. If you do not have a gental dexterity in your fingers, the endmills can get trashed in the blink of an eye! (been there, done that (chair) )

3rd, the Spin Fixture is for grinding diameters, flats, squares, or shapes on short peaces. They are usually sloppy bearings, and would not do an endmill very good. Spin fixtures are great for grinding the hardened shanks of taps and endmills, so you can tap or mill deeper! They are also good for grinding the ends of case hardened Leadscrews for bearings, and couplings!

4th, a dedicated Endmill Sharpener like the ones made by Darex are $2k new!


Eric

finishing end mills turn into ruffing end mills , ruffing endmills become piled in a barrel for recycling sometime soon ? eventually ? maybe ? carbide heaven in the sky ?

We sharpen all our own drills/endmills. We do about 250 Guhring drills (coolant) a week, 3 shifts. We also do another 150 a week Guhring drills for another plant.
We only do about 50 endmills a month.

I run a "Schutte WU305 5-Axis Toolgrinder", I think it cost a little over $250,000 + fixtures. It runs Windows NT, Siemens 840D, Schutte software.

The only thing that I don't care for(about the machine), is calibrating the machine. (nuts)

We also sharpen a boat load of ID form tools.

The machine paid for itself in less than 2 years.

Here is the machine:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=7445



:cheers:

My profession is manufacturing and regrinding mills, drills from sizes .0625 up to 4" diamter
We also custom manufacture mills and drills to any specification.
We have 2 Anca TX7+ http://www.anca.com/pages/default.cfm?page_id=22557
and 3 Walters http://www.grinding.com/machines/pages/content/machines_cutter_walter.html

We also have to old 4 axis shutte's and approx 10 various #2 style #2 cincinnati grinders and a few brown and sharp.

But if i need anything done over the weekend I use my CutterMaster to get me by

Don

Donald,
That In-cycle Dressing on the Anca, is cool. I wish the Schutte had that, would save a lot of time. I might have to come up with something like that for work, What type of wheel do you dress your diamond wheels with, we use a large green wheel. The photo below has a very thin wheel mounted on the headstock. I can't tell what it is, looks like a "1A1"?

http://cache.solutionsmanagement.com.au/images/1190-120x800-wheel-dressing-small.jpg

:cheers:

I sharpen my own drills and break end-mills before they need sharpening : - )
I use a drill doctor as previous poster and can vouch for it's quality for such an inexpensive tool. I'm now cutting all of my cheap drill bits to 135 deg ones.

Mcgyver, dude, that is one awesomely composed, magazine ready picture. Good deal on your grinding tool.

JR

thanks JR, I did a lengthy online photo description on the construction of my universal grinding fixture, and this was the final image showing the results. nothing fancy, just a point-n-shot in my garage "studio" :D

2nd, the endmill flute fixture is called an "Air Bar" or "Air Bearing", it holds a 5C collet or endmill holder, and floats on a cussion of air from an air compressor. They are $400 used if you can find one!

Rats. :cool:

I would probably use that thing once a month for fewer than half a dozen tools. It would take over 2 years to pay for itself.

Will have to dream about a surface grinder at a later date.

we hv 5axix walter tool and cutter grinder
for resharpening ball nose cutters
and we are making new also and now we are looking for coating

mcgyver;
Howdy Dude! Where is the pix article on your fixture. Sounds like "need to know" educational reading. And a question for all!! Is there a good (hobby cheap), service provider for resharpening mill tools? I've been pitching them for the last few years. Seems like most shops will not want to mess with the small quantities for the hobby market!
billyjack :rolleyes:

I grind to form and sharpen carbide split point engraving cutters using a Deckel
SO tool grinder.Also grind to form and sharpen carbide lathe tools using a flat
diamond wheel. The carbide split points dull after about 80 letters in the A-2 and D-2 die steel I work with, so it's much more economical to sharpen them in-house.

I have yet to get the hang of sharpening drill bits properly with the General Tool
drill grinding attachment purchased a while back. I'll just keep trying to decipher the directions.

hey Bill, here's a link - some of the guys cross over between forums, hope its not somethin you've seen alread, dont' want to hijack the thread, but i got i kick out making this and posting it as it was my own design and the darn thing actually worked as intended. quite a breakthrough :D. it would work equally well with a surface grinder

http://www.homeshopmachinist.net/bbs/showthread.php?t=14890&highlight=universal
and
http://www.homeshopmachinist.net/bbs/showthread.php?t=15226&highlight=tooth+rest

That was a nice build Mcgyver! What a lot of work went into that attachment, especially the final finish and paint job!

Nice work!

Eric

Does the company you work for sharpen their own endmills & drills?

I have been looking at the DAREX Endmill Sharpener, they are simple to use, but very expensive! And difficult to find used!
http://www.darex.com/index.html

Eric

Everyone I've worked for has sharpened their own drills but not end mills. That is a very nice Machine Eric. I've only seen one once and it was in pitifull shape. Dam Hacks that called themselves Machinists Destroyed it which to me is Quite Sad. If you can find one of these used in good condition get it even if it is hard on the wallet. You may not find another for a every long time and if you do it may not be as nice as that one.

Mcgyver that is a cool piece of art. Nice Job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At my workplace, we don't sharpen end mills. Sometimes if an edge is a little dull, we use the diamond wheel to bring it back a bit. Or use the corner of the wheel to put little grooves in for roughing. All our end mills are solid carbide though, so we never do a full regrind when we can just send it out. We do sharpen drill bits though

The Co. I work for has a Derex endmill sharpener, I've been using it for about 10 years. I've put a diamond cup wheel on it & it's easy to use, and most of the endmills i've sharpened are sharper than most of the new ones I buy

I use a Z.Brierley drill sharpening unit to sharpen drills, counterbores, centerdrills, and ends of slot drills and end mills - all of them H.S.S.

Have a Hercus T/C to sharpen sides of H.S.S End Mills on large ones only.

Allen

we sharpen and manufacture out own Cutters now.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?p=548461#post548461

Where do you leave your dog when you are out of the house?

Do you know how to make your dog go WOOF.
...

G0 (can of lighter fluid and a match!)

They complained enough about all the custom form tools I made on the Agie wire EDM - They would really wig out if I had access to a proper tool grinder.