T&C grinder for horizontal mill cutters?

[RainbowsParticipant @rainbows]

Just thought I would have a quick check around. Seen a lot of tool and cutter grinders to sharpen end mills, yet to see one used for horizontal milling cutters.

Which grinders can be used on them? Aside from sharpening I want to do fairly heavy changes for turning imperial thickness cutters to metric and making radius and angle form cutters.

[RainbowsParticipant @rainbows]

[John ReeseParticipant @johnreese12848]

The traditional way of grinding these cutters is to mount them on an arbor that runs between centers. The cutter could also be mounted to a stub arbor fitted to a work head. I intended to attach a copy of the instructions for the Cincinnati no 2 tool and cutter grinder but I seem to have lost the file.

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

All T & C grinders will do what you want with the right attachments, Clarkson ! & 2, Stent & Kennet are at the smaller end of the market size wise.

Tony

[Anonymous]

Any of the professional T&C grinders will deal with horizontal cutters; I've got a Clarkson. But if you want to do major changes to cutters you'd be better off with a bigger machine, eg, Cincinnati, Studer.

You can buy radius and angle cutters, seems pointless to waste hours making them?

Andrew

[RainbowsParticipant @rainbows]

I think I will make something similar to a stent made out of the steel I have about. Don't have quite the space or budget for a Clarkson.

With regards to radius and angle cutters, its again a case of getting a metric radius. Angle cutters I will probably eventually buy but they are somewhat rarer and do tend to go for a premium compared to generic cutters.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Don't rule out Clarksons from budgetary considerations. They do come up cheap fairly often. Mine was £50 with enough accessories to get started. Collection cost being almost as much. Got fed up with the space it needs so lifted it off the column a couple of months back and sat it on a customised cupboard frame to taking 2 1/2 filing cabinet drawers. Much more space efficient in the small "dirty" corner of my workshop. Took about ten years to got from muttering to doing. Finally had to do something when I finally decided the RJH finisher and grinder on dust collection pedestals had spent long enough in the garage (2 years) and really should be bought into service. Shoehorn job around the sand blaster and wash tank but worth the effort as things are amazingly cleaner.

Stent may look simple but there is still a lot of work involved. Looked seriously into doing either a Stent or one of the other DIY designs but Clarkson appeared just before trigger pulled. My conclusion was that only the Brooks, simplified Quorn, was even remotely worth the input effort.

To modern eyes all the cutter grinders are very 19th century. Can't just dial up numbers and do an adequate job. You really have to learn how to use them and get good understanding of whats going on to get full benefit. Who has the time?

Surprised no one has leveraged modern inexpensive microprocessor and drive technology into a near automatic system. Fixed wheel and the cutter is driven round it in three axes as needed. Grinder version of the DivisionMaster I guess. USB microscope for the set up bit with a bit of AR processing to help things along.

Clive

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

About 22 minutes into this vid you can see how CNC milling technology is used to grind cutters.

Interesting if you have an hour on your hands.

Murray

[Author]

Posts