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Honing Carbide Inserts

1982shawn

Plastic
Joined
Jan 5, 2008
Location
washington dc
Hi, im still rather new to machining. I recently messed up the tip of a few carbide inserts that i was using. I have a bench grinder with coarse and medium wheels and a medium and fine honing block.

I have read my books on how to sharpen tool bits and gotten that basic process down. I was wondering if anyone can tell me if a magnification device is requred to inspect the tools edge or will normal vision be sufficient? If magnification is required what power do i need? I have a small handheld 60x-100x that i got from radio shack and it is a pain to use.

Also does anyone have any closeup pictures of what the tools edge should look like when fully sharpened?

Thanks
Shawn
 
inserts

Shawn,
Are you refering to actual insert tooling or cemented/brazed carbide tools? With the latter the carbide chip is not removable from the shank without a torch to melt it free. This kind of tool can be ground using a "green wheel" on your grinder with a rather poor microscopicly chipped edge, which can be improved with a diamond whetstone or hone. Better yet is a diamond wheel on a carbide tool grinder with a diamond hone.
If your using replaceable carbide insert tooling, the inserts are designed to be tossed after the cutting edges are gone. I have ground inserts for special applications, but they never hold up like the originals. You can get a pretty good look at the cutting edges with a low power jeweler's loupe.
lwbates
 
In a pinch, you can grind an insert. I know there are few people on here that swear by it(past threads).

Its not my favorite thing to do, but I l have done it, I'm sure I'll do it again.

Need a sharp square corner, grab a beat up insert and grind it. Part off tools, when not running balls to the wall production, get this crap the hell out of my hair jobs. I have no problem with it. Need a .040 square corner groover and all you have is a .040 radius groover, grind it.

2am on a nasty nasty job, run out of inserts, start grinding.

Shawn, just sort of follow what is there already. You can alter it a bit, if you are running a TPxx insert with 11 degrees relief, you usually don't need the full 11 degrees, so you can grind it at one or two, unless on a boring bar. I wouldn't grind the top of the insert, just the sides, or just the radius so you can get back to cutting.

You don't need a fancy magnifier, most of the time you can see it, sometimes I'll pull out the head gear with the flip down magnifiers on them, $15 big deal.

If you are just trying to be cheap, then buy some new inserts, and figure out why you toasted the ones you have. Cheap inserts, wrong inserts(for material/machine rigidity/cut depth etc...), wrong surface speed, wrong Depth Of Cut, too much feed, too much overhang, loose gibs, over/under center.
 








 
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