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

[widgitmaster]

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

[CNCRob]

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

[Fegenbush]

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

[lakeside]

Nothing Under 1/4 End Mills

[Mcgyver]

well in my garage we sharpen our own endmills and drills

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

[Zumba]

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?

[widgitmaster]

Originally Posted by Zumba 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 )

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

[dertsap]

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 ?

[Switcher]

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.

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/attach...achmentid=7445

[Donald]

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/pag...er_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

[Switcher]

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...sing-small.jpg

[JRoque]

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