Any uses for damaged cutters?

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

I have just purchased a job lot of horizontal milling cutters. There are slitting saws, face cutters , side and face cutters and some profile cutters. Most are sharp and those that need sharpening can be done on a friends Quorn (Mine isn't finished yet, probably quite a common refrain!).

Now there a few large slitting saws missing a tooth and an odd side and face cutter, again with a damaged tooth. Is there any point in keeping these, for initial rough milling? If not, then can anyone think of other uses? Seems a shame to throw away a few lumps of HSS!

Andrew.

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

[Dave MartinParticipant @davemartin29320]

Andrew,

I can't quickly find the thread, but I think it was on here – someone recently showed the use of slitting saw blade as a parting tool, and when a tooth was blunted, the blade was just rotated. The question was asked though as to how well swarf would be cleared from the cut….

Dave

[FarmboyParticipant @farmboy]

If you keep them you'll never need them, then the day after you throw them away you'll find many jobs you could have used them for

Don't ask …

Mike.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Andrew Tinsley on 18/12/2017 13:58:12:

I have just purchased a job lot of horizontal milling cutters. There are slitting saws, face cutters , side and face cutters and some profile cutters. Most are sharp and those that need sharpening can be done on a friends Quorn (Mine isn't finished yet, probably quite a common refrain!).

Now there a few large slitting saws missing a tooth and an odd side and face cutter, again with a damaged tooth. Is there any point in keeping these, for initial rough milling? If not, then can anyone think of other uses? Seems a shame to throw away a few lumps of HSS!

Andrew.

Use as parting tools?

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

Hi Andrew

Surely the cutter/saw with a tooth missing is still usable if the remaining teeth are sharp.
You may have to reduce the cutting feed rate to take account of the missing tooth, the cutting load on the tooth following the missing tooth gap will be twice the load per tooth of the remaining teeth.

I don't think model engineers work to industry metal removal rates mainly out of respect for the machine capability
so you may find not much difference when using.

Emgee

[Jon GibbsParticipant @jongibbs59756]

+1 for Emgee's comments – I don't think you'll notice.

If you want the tooth load on your slitting saw to be equal (and assuming it has an even number of teeth) you could always take a Dremel and remove every other tooth

Jon

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

I read a ME article recently by a chap who made all his tools himself in the 1960s by reforming HSS.

Saws for parting off as mentioned, but he also describes worn out milling cutters being ground into lathe knives and boring bar inserts.

His home-made knives were round at the holding end. They fitted into square bar drilled and slotted to grip them in his toolpost. They look exactly like the holders you can get for carbide boring bars.

His boring bar cutters were also round but they fitted directly into a hole drilled into a home-made boring bar and were held in place with a grub-screw.

Some of the tools look a little odd but no reason why they wouldn't work provided you have the grinding skills.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 18/12/2017 16:13:16

[Peter TuckerParticipant @petertucker86088]

Hi Andrew,

I have a slitting saw with teeth missing, still cuts fine. ( The critical thing is sharp teeth.)

Peter.

[Involute CurveParticipant @involutecurve]

I've got a 4 tooth 20mm endmill with only a tooth missing, it lost its tooth in the first couple of seconds but has done a tone of work since…..

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

Thanks gentlemen!

Looks as though I may as well sharpen the duff milling cutters and give them a try. I suspected that I may have been able to use them once ground and sharpened. Basically I was too idle to sharpen them and find it didn't work. Looks as though they may still be usable and definitely worth the effort of sharpening them.

Not sure about using them as parting tools, the hefty slitting saws won't have the side clearance necessary and any rotating system would have a large overhang. Maybe I have misunderstood how to use them in this application?

Interesting about cutting them up to use as a boring bar. how on earth would you cut them up to start with? Again I may well have got the wrong end of the stick!

Thanks,

Andrew.

[colin hawesParticipant @colinhawes85982]

I have several side and face milling cutters with missing teeth and experience shows that they work perfectly well on thick material but you need to take more cars if the material is thin because one of the teeth will be taking twice the cut on auto feed. Colin

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