Carbide cutters?

Hi cncman,

for stone and glass we normaly use diamond tools only for very soft marble we use tungsten. These tungsten tools can be sharpend at any sharpening workshop for timber cutting tools.

Electroplated diamond tools can not be sharpend, but sinterized diamond can. We just run them a few times along sandstone.

Originally posted by cncman
Carbide cutters?

I dunno, in my mind's eye I see you hunched over a green silicon carbide grinding wheel in a cloud of dust trying to make a dent on the stubborn carbide edge :D

If you need something for off hand grinding, get a diamond wheel or two and mount it on a 6" bench grinder. You can get years of use out of one of these wheels, and they maintain their profile for a long time. "Green wheels" are next to useless, IMO.

For general usage, I'd recommend a diamond wheel with a 1/2" wide flat face, and a 1/8" thick wheel with a 1/16 radius face. This latter wheel allows you to take an ordinary "dulled" carbide insert (for lathe tools) and grind a nice little gullet in the top that makes a really keen finishing toolbit. For manual lathework, this is an essential, IMO, because factory honed insert edges cannot be relied on when trying to machine accurately, the last few tenths off of a bearing seat. This is because the honed edge actually presents itself as a very negative rake tool when used at extremely shallow depths.

You should take the precaution of using a dust collector when grinding carbide, and wash your hands of the dust.