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Help with tooling

Traefinn123

Plastic
Joined
Dec 12, 2018
Location
Alabama
Where is the best place to buy tooling I have worked in production shops and rand a small pump repair shop and I always ordered indexable tooling for my machines but now that I have my home shop tooling is very expensive and was looking into making my own tooling but have never fooled with it i want to get some hss and learn to grind my own tooling ... money is a issue since it is my money I am spending and I make no profit from my home shop just looking for any tips on a inexpensive set up and what kind of rocks to buy any help is appreciated hoping to get some advice from the old timers!
 
Good to buy new and used end mill for end grinding/sharpening only. that is quick and easy. Many mill cutters can be loaded and used for all corners, then with a simple TC grinder the inserts can be shaved a little and used again.
What machine are you thinking about for sharpening?

Grinding End mill ODs takes better fixtures and talent so I would not recommend setting up for that.
and Diamond 120, 220 and 320 good for carbide. 500 is often too fine for dry sharpening.
320 OK for aluminum cutters. yes 500 would be better for aluminum cutters but may make edge fractures running dry.
 
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Where is the best place to buy tooling I have worked in production shops and rand a small pump repair shop and I always ordered indexable tooling for my machines but now that I have my home shop tooling is very expensive and was looking into making my own tooling but have never fooled with it i want to get some hss and learn to grind my own tooling ... money is a issue since it is my money I am spending and I make no profit from my home shop just looking for any tips on a inexpensive set up and what kind of rocks to buy any help is appreciated hoping to get some advice from the old timers!

HSS-Cobalt-Stellite can save you a ton, but only in cash.

You'll have to substitute TIME, and rather a lot OF it, both as to preparing and maintaining the tooling, and time in the cut.

Face it - that's why "expensive" insertable Carbides took over in "revenue" work. They ended up CHEAPER.

For fiddle-farting about, SHAPING the blank needs 30 and 60 grit grey ALOX, historically. I am not up to speed on Zirconia.

Fine-tuning ABC (anything but Carbides) wants a finer white wheel, plus a diamond wheel, AND not hand-finish with diamond "stone" as mostly all you'll do is f**k up the crucial edge geometry.

Key is to NOT thermally-shock the ultimate edge. Nano-fractures and rapid breakdown the all-too-common result.

Getting it "passable" wants a 60/30 double-ender for rough shaping, cheap is OK.

The big gain as to long-serving finish wants a much BETTER spindle and accurate angle-holding reliability.

And that was for simple-dumb single-point LATHE tools!

Milling cutters? A proper Tool and Cutter grinder, no substitutes for it.

WISER to send them TF out to he who has such, if only because they have all the wheels and holders and, and, and.. also know how to USE all that.

I don't have enough years left on-planet to learn what michiganbuck, cash, Carbide Bob, and MANY others, just on PM alone, have known for SCORES OF YEARS already about grinding.

It is their rice bowl, not mine, and the learning curve and costs are too steep for too seldom needed application by my way of measuring.

I make only the lathe tools, "on principle", the D drills and reamers only for my odd-size needs, ELSE never.

I don't mess at all with annular cutters, milling cutters nor endmills, nor actually even all that often with twist drills or any OTHER sort of drill. Plenty of new or as-new stocks out there cheap. Plenty of LIFE in the absolute best of store-bought as makes if come out "cheap" over the longer span of use.

YMMV but if grinding is not a "career" in its own right, it could easily become so and suck as much time as money clear out of the room.

Hiring it done can be cheaper, ELSE just don't go there atall.

Most realistic smallholder tooling isn't that hard nor expensive to ship out and back.

Smaller goods are cheaper to just buy than to sharpen.
 
Where is the best place to buy tooling I have worked in production shops and rand a small pump repair shop and I always ordered indexable tooling for my machines but now that I have my home shop tooling is very expensive and was looking into making my own tooling but have never fooled with it i want to get some hss and learn to grind my own tooling ... money is a issue since it is my money I am spending and I make no profit from my home shop just looking for any tips on a inexpensive set up and what kind of rocks to buy any help is appreciated hoping to get some advice from the old timers!

Best tip I can offer is to stay away from cheap chinese/indian-whatever HSS.
Start with at least couple of known quality HSS sticks so that you know if you should blame your sharpening or the tool material.

If you want you can get very much usable hobby quality insert tooling from importers or direct from ebay/aliexpress but cheap "import" HSS is not worth anyone's time.
 
Best tip I can offer is to stay away from cheap chinese/indian-whatever HSS.
Start with at least couple of known quality HSS sticks so that you know if you should blame your sharpening or the tool material.

If you want you can get very much usable hobby quality insert tooling from importers or direct from ebay/aliexpress but cheap "import" HSS is not worth anyone's time.

Agreed. Remember.. a full "stick" of HSS-Cobalt-Stellite blank, even USED - can last fifty years so long as not the only chunk in the drawer. WHEN you hit a good grind, you want to leave it that way for mere touch-up, next go, and NOT piss-it-away re-roughing over and over when you can do some OTHER good-grind and preserve that as well. It did say "drawer", and yah, there's more than one, even so.

If there be a "trick" for lathe tool alloys, it is to lay-in your favourites - the ones you are MOST COMFORTABLE with [1] - then add a few "collections" of some prior Pilgrim's already-ground leftovers. The short-shorts go into your boring bars. HIS shapes provide examples, good, bad, or indifferent, but a cheap extension to your education, regardless.

"PS:" - Since it has gone "mostly" cheap, I like the FATTEST blank I can get on-centre, not the skinny ones to "save money". A larger cross-section back of the SAME working profile at the tip can carry more heat away, faster, and is less susceptible to vibration or chatter.

Endmills? Mind your machine's stiffness, HP, and RPM range. Too small may mean too slow. Too large may mean too much stress, etc. Happier times to stay within due bounds even if it means more passes.

[1] Just me, but Crucible's Rex AA and AAA for non-ferrous, the Mo Max clan or Cobra T1 for knocking-off the rough crap, Crucible's Rex 95 for most work, 'coz it's what I knew best- solved the most problems WITH, even when I had to weld blanks together to make Tee or Ell shaped cutters. Also Tatung-G Stellite for a play-toy I had much less experience with, but grew to respect, serious pain in the arse to grind notwithstanding. Your mileage WILL Vary. Expect it to. Keep an open mind. Learn to "run what yah got".
 
Cam ..you are right should have stated what kind of wheels, thanks.

Your right I should have said AO wheels 46 and 60 grit .....diamond wheel 120,220 320. I will go back and edit that.]

I don't use green wheels for much more than roughing.
 
At the big shop we used green wheel for spinning carbide tooled face mills and the like.

Back in the old days we would rough in a one-up or few-up form by steps grinding with a diamond wheel to make the form in steps ..then dress the form to a green wheel to finish buy taking away the steps. Now a CNC grinders makes that work childes play...Good.

Agree a form plated wheel can do that but not for a one or few-up job.
 
I am mostly thinking about my lathes I don’t have a huge issue paying for endmills becouse once they are sharpened they would be a bastard size and unless I’m just facing a part it wouldn’t be worth it
 
I don’t have a huge issue paying for endmills becouse once they are sharpened they would be a bastard size and unless I’m just facing a part it wouldn’t be worth it[/QUOTE]
Unless you are cutting a slot/groove undersize don't mean crap,in fact sometimes a mill a bit under size can be damm handy. And for side cuts don't matter at all.
 
I am mostly thinking about my lathes I don’t have a huge issue paying for endmills becouse once they are sharpened they would be a bastard size and unless I’m just facing a part it wouldn’t be worth it

?? A "plunge" endmill CAN be used as a drill, but otherwise? It ain't their "personal geometry" as describes a feature. It is all about how one traverses the work and endmill relative to each other. That's why we CALL it "milling" not "drilling".
 








 
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