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Grind house recommendations

thunderskunk

Cast Iron
Joined
Nov 13, 2018
Location
Middle-of-nowhere
Mornin,

Looking for a US based grind house for a form cutter we’re having trouble with. Large quantities, odd geometry, carbide, and high surface finish requirements. Cutting pure copper. We’ve tried a few big names and have some... interesting results.

Thanks guys.
 
Are you ordering roughing and finishing cutters? With pure copper (soft and gummy) you'll have issues with a "single step" cutter, regardless of who makes it.

Who's doing the cutter design (flute count, helix, clearance, relief, etc)? Your company, or the grinders? I'd only specify the profile, and leave the rest to a good grind house after giving them a complete description of what I'm cutting, the machines and coolant, toolholding, etc.
 
Are you ordering roughing and finishing cutters? With pure copper (soft and gummy) you'll have issues with a "single step" cutter, regardless of who makes it.

Who's doing the cutter design (flute count, helix, clearance, relief, etc)? Your company, or the grinders? I'd only specify the profile, and leave the rest to a good grind house after giving them a complete description of what I'm cutting, the machines and coolant, toolholding, etc.

That’s exactly what we did: our print leaves a lot of gray area, so different tool houses have very different geometry.

We predrill the bore, but the form itself is cut in one pass. We’ve tried a few oddball cutters, including multiple flutes.

I’m not throwing out any names though. I’ve had good and bad experiences with said supplier, but the last thing I want to do is call them out.
 
Is this a porting tool, or a form cutter like you see for turbine blade "fir trees"? If a porting tool, I'd seriously consider getting PCD inserts for the actual cutting zones, especially for copper cutting.
 
Listed in no order of preference, custom tool grinders I've used in the last 3 months:

Schwanog: High quality form tools in solid carbide or inserts. Available with coolant through. Good stuff, but as with everything else they make, you pay for the quality. No complaints there.

Ceratizit: Decent chance they're supplying the carbide rod your tool is ground on anyway. They have application engineers that will evaluate your material and geometry and supply recommendations for carbide grade, grinds, and coatings. Also $$$ but worth it.

MITGI: Not always the MOST premium stuff, but ALWAYS very competitive, usually cheaper, and pretty much universally faster; I've had them make, coat, and ship specials in under a week.

Core Cutter: Good stuff. The guy who used to do the magic specials at Helical started Core Cutter... Notice Helical's specials quality has gone downhill? That's because he took his mojo with him. Good tools, good prices, decent lead times. Think like Helical 2.0

GWS: Good stuff, a bit pricey, and unless you're a big customer, they might take a bit to get you a special, but they're good people with fine quality tooling.

That's just off the top of my head.
 
....

Ceratizit: Decent chance they're supplying the carbide rod your tool is ground on anyway. They have application engineers that will evaluate your material and geometry and supply recommendations for carbide grade, grinds, and coatings. Also $$$ but worth it.
.

The Ceartizit USA facility which was a combination of the Duramet and Newcomer manufacturing plants and equipment is being shut down by years end.
Very sad to me as family lifetime with both the above from Latrobe and Detroit.
Distribution will continue outside Chicago, special perform processing/dies will also continue but be moved overseas.
Bob
 
The Ceartizit USA facility which was a combination of the Duramet and Newcomer manufacturing plants and equipment is being shut down by years end.
Very sad to me as family lifetime with both the above from Latrobe and Detroit.
Distribution will continue outside Chicago, special perform processing/dies will also continue but be moved overseas.
Bob

Off-topic, but this just gives me a sad, sinking feeling. More foreign-owned [critical] manufacturing business being closed & offshored.




My goodness, what can be done to stop this...
 
Off-topic, but this just gives me a sad, sinking feeling. More foreign-owned [critical] manufacturing business being closed & offshored.




My goodness, what can be done to stop this...

One thing that won't help is the >$400K tax the dems keep talking about. That will drive those big companies away real quick! I don't think they understand trickle-down at all.

Sorry, basic economics.......:nutter:
 
So you're in favor of the Repub "tax the poor, breaks for the rich" policies? That's worked really well for creating a class of multi-billionaires, but I'm not convinced of the benefits for working-class Americans...
 
One thing that won't help is the >$400K tax the dems keep talking about. That will drive those big companies away real quick! I don't think they understand trickle-down at all.

Sorry, basic economics.......:nutter:

I'm thinking bigger. How do you stop, or significantly damper, or dis-incentiveize offshoring of critical manufacturing capabilities?

The first thought that comes to mind - unpopular as it may be - is legislation. :(
 
One thing that won't help is the >$400K tax the dems keep talking about. That will drive those big companies away real quick! I don't think they understand trickle-down at all.

Sorry, basic economics.......:nutter:

So you're in favor of the Repub "tax the poor, breaks for the rich" policies? That's worked really well for creating a class of multi-billionaires, but I'm not convinced of the benefits for working-class Americans...




Please, let's not drag this thread down the tubes of trump vs. anti-trump bickering. Too many other places & threads for that.
 
Please, let's not drag this thread down the tubes of trump vs. anti-trump bickering. Too many other places & threads for that.

I'll get the fainting couch for you. If you think it's better to pretend that we're not failing because we keep letting a privileged class take advantage of us, then what's to ever stop it?
 
Added to my repertoire, thank you. Interestingly, they list a K16 on their equipment list. If it's what I'm thinking of, that's a 16mm Citizen Swiss machine, I wonder what they make on it to support their custom tooling business...

They mention step reamers, so maybe that's it. A blank for that would be much easier on a swiss machine.
I've only ordered solid carbide tools from them though. Gave them a sketch with the shape I need and the material it was cutting and they did the rest.
 








 
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