Homemade Tool & Cutter grinder (with a difference).

[tonyfoale]

Amazing work as usual, I do connect with your logical approach and your explanations that even I can understand.
Tool and cutter grinding ( once a job title in itself ) has for me always been a bit of a black art, I have a large box of worn cutters that I have had for years so I think I will now try to make use of them.

In the industrial world tool & cutter grinding has changed a lot. Many shops now just buy new cutters and scrap the blunt ones. maximum production from CNC machines demands super sharp cutters of precise dimensions. Very few shops employ anyone who is capable of doing the work anymore, as you said it used to be a job itself. There are a diminishing number of shops which specialise in the art but there are some high tech places that actually use CNC T&C machines. I know that the subject is regarded as a black art in some quarters but there is no need to be intimidated, it is just another machining operation if approached in a logical manner. I have always regarded a black art as mysterious only until I look into it or work it out for myself.