Dovetail cutters

With dovetail cutters being offered in 45deg. and 60deg. versions, I wonder if the more experienced members on the Forum have an opinion on which should be used in particular situations?

Are the carbide tipped cutters a better buy than the HSS ones on general offer?

John

60 degree is commoner on machine tools - it takes up less space and the edges of the dovetails are less delicate.

My HSS cutter has done plenty of work, and though a little blunt at the very tips it still works well.

Neil

55 degrees is also used for dovetails, or has been in the past. I don't know if milling cutters are available for this angle but since I have several shapers this is not a problem for me.

John

Thanks, Neil and John.

The 60 deg. will do just fine as my first jobs will be making slides for a tool grinder along the lines of Harold Hall's design. HSS should do all my jobs as well.

John

The Russians still use 55 degrees on their machine tools. Other than that basically all small machine tools use 60 degree dove tails and the larger machines use various other systems, from square slides to in house bearing designs. Round bars used be used on older type small machine tools like the older version of the Emco unimat.

Harrisons are 55 degree so Colchesters will be as well.

Mill out and remove what you can leaving the dovetail cutter to literally just cut the dovetail.

Used HSS 5/8" shank for this needed the depth in old spring steel and just about lasted. **LINK**