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End Mill Sharpening Fixture with plans
End Mill Grinding/Sharpening Fixture With Plans.
This is a simplified design using 5C collets to hold the end mill and a bench grinder with a fine grinding wheel. Having a good articulating grinding rest is very helpful.
This unit is similar to one by Harold Hall and others except I am using off the shelf collets and collet blocks. With a Hex block and a Square block you can sharpen two flute, three flute and 4 flute end mills. This fixture is just for sharpening the end and not the flutes. I find the ends need sharpening much more often than the flutes.
Here is the link for HH Sharpening Fixture:
Homemade End Mill Sharpening Jig - HomemadeTools.net
I used this to sharpen 11 end mills that I had put in my not useable box and they all sharpened to cut much like a new one in both steel and aluminum. This fixture is quite worthwhile. If you build one please post it.
I used Aluminum for the base and 1018 steel for the main block and other associated parts.
The adjusting screw is a section of all thread. The adjustment knob is brass as is the clamp washer for the main block.
Cheers, JR
14 Attachment(s)
Build Pictures for End Mill Sharpening
Here are the build pictures. Of special note is the last picture. This shows the method of alignment of the flutes.
The gage on the side of the adjustment block is used on one flute to align the surface for grinding.
After this alignment the collet block is moved forward until it hits the stop. The adjuster is then turned
to allow the end of the flute to contact the grinding wheel. Take small cuts and cut each flute in turn.
If it is not completely sharp on all the flute ends then advance the adjuster just a bit and cut more from
each end until completely sharpened on all ends. The process is quite fast.
Video of use on the grinder rest.
