How to sharpen a turning tool

In the household of a real man, there probably is a small machine for carving metal or wood. To work on it you need the appropriate tools. One of them is a cutter. It consists of two parts - the head and holder. Using a turning tool carry out a lot of operations. They process holes, cut metal rods of small diameter, chamfer, cut ledges, and obtain metal products of complex shape. Both worn out and new turning tools need sharpening

You will need

- grinding wheel;
- safety glasses or protective visor;
- special patterns or incisors;
- a magnifier that increases 10-20 times.

Instruction manual

Starting to sharpen the cutter, set the grinding wheel on the machine. Make sure it is securely enclosed by a safety cover. If you are going to sharpen a high speed steel turning tool, use a medium hard grinding wheel made of electrocorundum with a grain size of 40-20. And sharpen a carbide cutting tool on another grinding wheel - green silicon carbide.

Pay attention to the surface of the grinding wheel. It should be flat, not jagged. Otherwise, the grinding wheel must be edited. Editing is carried out with artificial diamonds, diamond substitutes, as well as special cones.

Be sure to wear safety glasses to protect your eyes from metallic or abrasive dust. Also for these purposes, you can use a protective visor.

To prevent the turning tool from weighing, mount it on the handrail. And place the handicap accordingly to the grinding wheel - at a certain angle, closer to it. So you in the process of sharpening the cutter will provide him with reliable support.

Start sharpening the cutter from the main back surface, then go to the main auxiliary, and to top it, process the front surface of the tool. After that, round the tip of the cutter. For uniform wear of electrocorundum or silicon carbide, move the sharpened tool along the surface of the circle. To avoid overheating, do not press the tool strongly against the circle. Otherwise, cracks may appear on the cutter.

Starting to sharpen the tool, ensure its abundant continuous cooling with water. Otherwise, it is better to use dry sharpening. During sharpening, do not apply drop cooling or immersion of the tool in water.

Check the tool sharpening angles using the template. Press the back of the cutter against the side of the template. Lack of clearance will indicate the correct rear angle. Check the angle of sharpening by cutting out the template. You can also check the sharpening angles with the help of special cutter goniometers.

After checking the sharpening angles, inspect the resulting cutting edge quality. To do this, you need a magnifier with a 10-20 magnification. Make sure that the cutting edge is sharp, without rounding, scratches or cracks. With such defects, the cutter will have to be regrind.