How To Sharpen Carbide Tipped Lathe Tools

Heat is the enemy of sharpening metal and carbide tipped tools slower speed and water bathed systems help in this regard.

How to sharpen carbide tipped lathe tools. Carbide does not lend itself well to offhand grinding although it can be ground that way. Assuming youre talking about brazed carbide tools the best way is with a high speed wet diamond wheel mounted on a machine with a table that tilts to establish front and side relief. How to use a slow speed grinder to sharpen carbide tooling.

When grinding the turning tool should be placed in the horizontal center of the grinding wheel and the tip of the tool should be slightly upward for about 3 8 When the turning tool contacts the grinding wheel it should move horizontally in the left and right directions. Shown below is what Ive put together to achieve the level of accuracy desired. My experience started with a high speed grinding wheel and over time I have moved to a moving belt system.

Building your own carbide tipped lathe tools will bring much satisfaction fast and clean cuttingnot to worry about sharpening because you can just get a new carbide insert for 5 to 10 bucks. Be sure to have some lapping fluid on hand to use as a lubricant. I talk about some techniques I u.

As I noted in my Sharpening Handbook httpsharpeninghandbookinfo these are not easy to sharpen in a normal manner. Ad Easy to Use - Laser Fits in Spindle 4-Axis 00002 resolutn Fast Setup. It is a sled which rides atop the SVD-110 Tool.

Carbide tools can be sharpened on an ordinary bench grinder but it does not do the best job in terms of finish. They had several grinders for carbide tools some with face type wheels and one like an ordinary bench grinder with 7. For a while now Ive wanted to have a way to sharpen my metal lathe cutting tools.

I started at a time when there were no carbide tipped tools. During sharpening lathe tool please place the lathe tool on the horizontal center of the grinding wheel and the tip of the lathe tool is slightly upward about 3-8 when the lathe tool touches the grinding wheel that the lathe tool should be moved around horizontally. It takes practice to sharpen tools no matter what system you choose.