Endmill Flute Sharpening

[@robertqueberg4612]

Hello, Resharpening endmills can be quite a challenge without equipment and some instruction from a qualified person. As a person who has sharpened hundreds of endmills, over a lot of years, I am highly impressed with the adaptions that you have made in your shop. Most of my grinding work was done with the help of a grinding fixture, made by Weldon, from Cleveland,Ohio, US. This fixture has several features that a person who has made what you have shown here, would find to be a few interesting projects. I am especially impressed that you have gotten the spindle to move freely enough to be very functional. I tip my hat to you for this work.

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Wow! Thank you very much. That's very encouraging for me as I'm not a trained machinist (I'm a retired electronics design engineer) to hear that from someone who knows what they're talking about. I'd be interested to find out what these additional features are on the Weldon machine. The spindle could be better but I didn't want to spend a lot on a special jig which wouldn't get used that much. The cast iron bore part of the fixture came with the TC grinder. Turning the spindle to a smooth finish and consistent diameter was a challenge as my 1973 lathe has about 100um wear on the bed and turns slight tapers in both directions on the same cut!

[@eddiekulp1241]

I used same Weldon fixture for years as a cutter grinder

[@Engineering.Hereford]

The best video's on cutter sharpening that I have seen Thanks for taking the time to make it

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Wow! Thank you!

[@benkeller3]

You do a fantastic job explaining things. I am going to go back through your videos and also look forward to new ones. The bell is on!!

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thank you. I do my best, but it'll get more difficult to find topics that haven't been done better on other channels!

[@nectouxpierre4634]

Clear explanations for a tedious process. Bravo!

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thanks. Glad it was ok!

[@Paul-FrancisB]

Thanks for an interesting video, one thought a simple collar that clamps around the back of the spindle would give you a stop to ensure the grind starts in the same place on each flute

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thats a good idea! I might steal that idea off you! Thanks.

[@Paul-FrancisB]

@@ThePottingShedWorkshop you are welcome, I am pondering how I could adapt your method to my d-bit grinder as I'm not lucky enough to have a surface grinder

[@captcarlos]

@@Paul-FrancisB the ‘Import’ D bit I bought has a head to do the flutes with. But as Stephan would say “It’s a good kit” needing refinement. Also, as the motor isn’t reversible, (at least I don’t Think so..?) So the guide point has to be underneath the cutter….

[@Paul-FrancisB]

@@captcarlos mine isn't the import it's an old British made Alexander UX (Deckel copy) with it's original AEI 3 phase motor so rotation direction isn't an issue, I could possibly retrofit an import head but where is the fun in that if I can build my own attachment. It has been good to watch Stephan refine his import machine (again), I don't think I will be going that far.

[@captcarlos]

@@Paul-FrancisB Agreed, the tooling I have made for my home workshop has given me more satisfaction over a longer time than what machine at work.

[@donaldcharlong9586]

Very nice presentation. I've seen several other explanations of this procedure but yours is by far the most clear and complete. Well done. Thank you.

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thank you very much. I have been accused of being a bit like a school teacher, but if you want the ins and outs of "how to", thats how I'll appear unfortunately😁

[@ambisinisterengineering5242]

Nice video well presented thanks for taking the time to go through this

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thanks for watching!

[@CliveBracknall]

That's the third video of yours I've seen. Keep them coming superb demonstrated.

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

I'll try to keep producing videos but I want to try and keep the subject matter a little bit different. That won't be easy...

[@ianpendlebury9503]

I know this was made a while ago, but it contains so many good tips and fine points. Thanks from someone who is just staring out with a Clarkson.

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thanks! I've acquired a Clarkson myself. When I've cleared some of the project queue I plan to restore it and make some fixtures for it. If its better than the Union I'll do a swap.

[@darkobul1]

I just 3d printed er32 collets for sharpening drills. Considering its a small pressure on grinding it worked well. Not sure for end mill will provide precision but for drill it worked great

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thats an interesting way of making collets. As you say, printed ones may not be precise enough (are my chinese cheap ones?🤔) as you want sub 1 thou accuracy otherwise the mill doesnt cut very evenly. Nice idea though.

[@howlerbike]

Thank You !!! This stuff makes my day every time !

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thanks for watching. I'm trying to find relavant but different topics to the other channels that I watch.

[@Железняк-х4р]

Очень ценный и подробный урок по заточке концевых фрез. Я подписался и в дальнейшем буду просматривать ваш канал. Спасибо!

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thank you!

[@elkodude]

You are using just the edge of the wheel. After you dressed the wheel, it made the side flat. Did you rotate the fixture slightly or turn the motor to allow the cutter to just touch the leading edge? Btw, I just made a fixture similar to yours. Tomorrow is the first test!

[@richardmills5450]

That was fabulous. Thank you. We need more on this subject. Cheers

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thank you. I'll do a short video on sharpening reamers. Other things I can show are horizontal milling cutter sharpening. When I'm happy with my drill sharpening I'll do those too, but I'm not completely happy with that yet.

[@Jan_Raap]

Great stuff! Now I know where to send all my dull cutters 😊

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

🤣! I've got a whole bucketload of dull ones to deal with. Probably a lifetime's supply!

[@captcarlos]

I thank you for that video. That was a better practical demonstration of the Tool and cutter sharpening flutes than my trade teacher 30 years ago. OH&S, grinding is not harmless, even if you don’t get bitten.

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thank you. Oh yes, I'm fully aware of the dangers of grinders. I need dust extraction. The wheel guard is always in place somewhere and I try not to get in the firing line should something go wrong. I'm going to be trying an electroplated wheel rather than a white oxide one. Gets rid of one problem at least.

[@tonyray91]

I have always liked the look of the Union, quite a rare beast compared to the Clarkson. Great explanation especially on setting the finger, my Kennet was never designed to do lutes but I reckon I could now make something to adapt it. looking forward to the next part in your series.

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thanks for watching. This is the result of trial and error. I usually use chopped up hacksaw blades as indexing fingers, but they always get in the way, are difficult to set up on helical flutes and never feel as positive and secure.

[@Griffon37]

Very interesting, and well made tooling adaptions. Thanks for a great video

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thanks for watching. Glad it was entertaining.

[@jimwright3236]

I have recently acquired a KO Lee tool and die grinder that looks remarkably similar to your grinder, so I was thrilled to find this video. I have 1 question so far; the last step in your set up was to adjust the relief angle to 10 degrees which then required the height of the head to be adjusted. My question is, why did you do this last and not when you were using the height gauge to set the heights early on? I am looking forward to seeing the next video in the series.

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thanks for watching and commenting. To be honest... I nearly forgot to put the relief angle on😳. Trying to concentrate on the camera, commentary, actually doing the job, I only realised just in time that I'd missed this step out! It's not like it was the first endmill I've sharpened. I was given a small bucketload (literally!) of dull mills and I sharpened about 30 of them, but off camera.

[@captcarlos]

Robert’s order of ops is still correct. Flute At center height has no clearance angle, ie could not cut only rub on the back. But you need to set that and then rotate cutter head to desired angle of clearance. He then matched the center of the cutter with the approximate center height of the wheel for neatness really..

[@jimwright3236]

That makes sense then, setting up the relief cut in that order.

[@charliemyres5450]

What a useful machine! Good explanation Robert. I think your terminology might be incorrect; I was taught that the flute is the groove where the swarf escapes from the hole and in this case where the finger rests. So you haven't sharpened the flute, you have sharpened the land, which is the raised part representing the outside-diameter of the end-mill, or a drill bit. Perhaps I am wrong, Cheers

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

No, you're not wrong. I agree with you. It can be difficult to find the right words when you're concentrating on not screwing up the operation and wondering if you're in the camera shot, is it filming etc, all at the same time!

[@TheJohndeere466]

This is much easier if you point the spindle to the right and put your finger under the endmill while grinding. Let gravity be your friend instead of fighting it.

[@terrycannon570]

Excellent

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thanks. I had a pile of used endmills I was given. It would have been a waste not to use them.

[@stefankrimbacher7917]

Amazing video. This helps me a lot

[@ChannelVariabel]

Ini sangat berbeda dengan apa yang saya lakukan selama ini. Luar biasa😊

[@GoldenAgePuritan]

Does there need to be a secondary edge bevel?

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Good question. Yes is the answer I think. How much primary land width is acceptable will be a function of how fast the cutter if fed into the work. At zero feed the bevel behind the edge cannot rub as it is a smaller diameter than the edge and no matter how much bevel is applied, there will be a feed rate beyond which the bevel will rub regardless. Should I have ground a secondary bevel? Quite possibly, although the cutter worked acceptably when I tried it out. On many 2 flute cutters there is a raised land which oblivates the need to grind additional clearance as this is within the acceptable width for the primary bevel. It's obviously simple enough to grind using the technique I demonstrated but I'd do it before the primary bevel grind.

[@GoldenAgePuritan]

@@ThePottingShedWorkshopThank you for the reply. It is appreciated.

[@Chinaendmillsupplier]

Best video

[@stephenperry5849]

Thank you, really informative.

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thank you.

[@MatthewTinker-au-pont-blanc]

Very useful!

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Thank you!

[@couttsw]

At 20 minutes in a 30 minute video, you haven't done anything. To grow your channel, keep it quicker paced and interesting. You are almost monotone and like listening to a math teacher explain geometry...to a bunch of 10 yr olds. Did you do a script and read it, edit it, have a non machinist read it and understand it, or did you just shoot from the hip?

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Well, this must be the first negative comment I've had. Sorry it's not your cup of tea, but you can't please all the people all the time.