What are you all doing with your carbide endmills once they need to be sharpened?
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Never had any luck with re-sharpening end mills. I know that the scrape carbide can be sold, but I have never sold any. An endmill sharpener is a pretty expensive acquisition. Precise Universal Cutter Sharpener - UCS-001| Penn Tool Co., Inc
There are cheap versions from mainland China for less than 1k.
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I do have a Darex E-90 that I used on my old HSS endmills when running a knee mill. The Darex doesn’t sharpen the plunge cut end mills well and I have to set up a gash grind operation on the surface grinder for it. Guess I’m getting lazy and looking for an alternative like these guys.
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Looks like a good idea to try. Looks reasonable.
Are you affiliated with them? I might send several off to see what comes back. Thanks
I always save a few end mills and broken center drills grind specialty tools to use on the lathe. We grind a lot of bits to cut snap ring grooves and o-ring grooves and such they can’t even make good turning tools
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I’m not affiliated with them. I want to find out if they document the new diameter if they touch the flutes.
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I don’t know about that shop, but… it’s not a given.
I got some tools reground at another shop, I even specifically asked them to document the new diameter, and they just didn’t.
Maybe if the place is better managed they will do that for you .
I used to recycle all of my used carbide but recently found a business close by that resharpens end mills, drills and taps. It isn’t always worth the price of a resharp, but on tools over 3/8 I find it very useful.
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I called sharp cutter and they do not provide any diameter documentation if they touch flutes. They told me I can get an accurate reading myself with a micrometer.
I am going to send off a couple end mills and see how they do. I’ll report back.
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When I was going through a hundred die drills a month it was worth having them sharpened on a rotation but never for endmills. Most of us use insert mills if we have a high attrition rate. Only very small cutters are solid carbide and they’re cheap enough to just recycle.
I agree, it’s definitely worth using inserted tools for anything high wear. Anything small or standard length isn’t worth it when you can pick up a new 2xD end mill for 12-15 bucks.
I get my long carbide end mills or special tooling resharped a couple of times before tossing them though. Getting a 5xD 3/8 end mill resharped and coated for 15 bucks a piece adds up savings over the year.
Resharps are less useful in the MR1 though due to lack of cutter compensation. Unless you have the tolerance on a part to not worry about it. One of these days I’ll join the crowd that has upgraded their machines to more capable software, just haven’t made time for it yet.
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