What's new
What's new

hss engraving bit source

memphisjed

Titanium
Joined
Jan 21, 2019
Location
Memphis
I have found that hss/cobalt gives a better finish on my mill, by a lot. Almost exclusively a36/a50 stock from scrap bins. I am toying with engraving (and other mill stuff) on it; modified some broken carbide pcb drill bits (use them to drill out broken drill insert screws) to work similar to the split point commercial ones. I have gotten so I do not break many, but would like to try hss store bought ones. All I can find is carbide.

tried msc, mcmaster, mari, travers, sherline

Related but not- why are good hss/cobalt end mills more than carbide?
 
Try using a ,08 ball endmill I like them better then center drill and I’m a long time center drill guy
Don


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I believe the reason you don't find HSS engraving cutters is they just don't last very long compared to carbide in a dedicated engraver. My old school Gorton runs at 18,000 rpm, for almost everything I do except plastics. Then I'll use a small endmill at a much lower rpm.
 
I engrave about 10,000 aluminum parts a year, .005" deep and 3/16"ish tall letters and numbers. My current favorite engraver is a Harvey tool runner cutter with a .025" radius ball or an 1/8" centerdrill. I have tried many, many, many different tools for engraving and nothing has worked as well, they all raised some burr, engraver specific tools being the worst.
 
I looked at the few places I have bought engraving cutters from over the years and no HSS there either. You might check ebay. There should be some. I used to have a Gorton engraver and had some older cutters that came with it. I think some of them were HSS.

Regarding using ball endmills, center drills, whatever, it depends on what look you are after. On my parts I want more of a groove than a shallow ditch. I use 40 and 60 degree single lip cutters and get very nice engraving. It does leave a slight burr but my parts get tumbled and that takes care of the burr.
 
I have use a mini ball mill, which seems ok for part id and stuff. Hoping for a cross between hand graver depth/width shiney side wall and a starret/pec ruler with crisp details. I come from old school hammer engraving, so the whole burr thing doesn't bother me. I still have to go back in and stimple (sp?) the low spots to bring out depth.

Thanks for the help and suggestions so far. Learning this milling stuff is a good frustration break in routine.
 
Last edited:
My personal preference is to use a small ball or bull nose, only going as deep so the cutter radius leaves a shallow edge. It looks good and doesn’t feel sharp, any burr left I use a stone or some scotch to take the edge off. For 10mm tall letters, a 0.75R cutter about 0.3mm deep is good.
 








 
Back
Top