Making cheap end mills with rebar and RCTs

[bazmak]

With the weather heating up and therefore spendind less time in the shed
i decided to take a break from the Simplex and try a simple job
I have made and posted a thread on homemade endmills and of all my cutting tools for mill found certain ones to work really well and being used all the time
My 16mm dia one i use a lot and when it broke i had to make a new one
I also posted a thread on using free rebar as a cheap alternative to HT steel
I made 2 new cutters both 20mm shank and 18 and 21mm dia









https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mks5aWDfQ_M

,selecting a couple
of carbide tips that seemed suitable.Successful so far and the photos tell the story.Hopefully 2 short videos at the end showing them working on Alum
time will tell on mild steel

 

[bazmak]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVS2LkDg-is[/ame]

 

[bazmak]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mks5aWDfQ_M[/ame]

 

[DJP]

Nicely done. I have made many lathe cutters using carbide inserts so a milling cutter makes sense too. I have also found that carbide inserts can be sharpened using a green wheel for extra life. As long as you are saving money you might as well economize on inserts too.

 

[bazmak]

I have a diamond wheel to sharpen tips and extend the life
as an apprentice when tips were new on the block we were
told that you could not sharpen carbide tips without losing the cutting rake
now we know different.With a light touch the cutting edge can be improved
to cut and the tip rad reduced to a sharp edge.Makes chipping more likely
with intermediate cuts.Cutting the rebar was a piece cake but i did chip
a tip and had to grind a couple of times