Chinese End Mill Sharpener

Hello, I've just picked up one of the generic Chinese End Mill Sharpeners similar to this

I appreciate that it's never going to be as good as a proper air spindle, but then again it was also <£40

Has anyone ever played with one, or have a set of the instructions that came with it. The sharpeners are all over the net, but no signs of any paperwork anywhere.

I'm sure I can figure it out, by comparing it with "proper" industrial kit, but anything to give me a sporting start might be advantageous

Many thanks in advance

Bill

Bought one some years ago -- absolutely rubbish so sent it back for a refund ! In fairness it could be improved if treated as a set of castings.

The unit looks like it is meant to bolt onto a surface or tool and cutter grinder so you can grind the flutes on a milling cutter , you will still need some form of grinder ( tool and cutter ot modified bench grinder ) to use it . You can use it to do the end of the cutter but you will need to make a mount up to allow it to tilt back and rotate so you can set the clearance angles needed .

I bought one from one of the main tool suppliers.....

Had a look at it, looks great, but bu**ered if I could work out how to use it sensibly.......Not one of my better buys.

Since selling it on, I found out how it was intended to be used....still no regrets in selling it on...just got a drawer full of blunt cutters...

We live and learn...

Edited By John Rudd on 07/04/2018 13:36:41

If you search through your llink you can eventually come to this. You may have to paste into your browser if it doesn't convert to "LINK"   Edit - it did convert to link, it wouldn't do it in my draft.

**LINK**

Edited By Robbo on 07/04/2018 13:56:30

Hmmm.. I might have had a fighting chance if those instructions were with the one I bought....

If you search through your LINK you can eventually find this rather poor .pdf.

**LINK**    

Edit - ignore this, when I looked back my post above had disappeared, so assumed I'd forgotten to send it - this may have happened in the past 

Do this one and the first re-appears.   Ain't technology wonderful.

Edited By Robbo on 07/04/2018 14:28:30

Thanks Robbo, your first post is still there.

I do have a Clarkson Mk1 that I picked up from a friendly neighbour who runs a skip/recycling company. It came with no motor or tooling, barring the centres, so gradually making or adapting stuff for my sharpening needs as and when.

Previously I'd no easy means of sharpening flutes of end mills; Maybe I still haven't

Regards

Bill

John Stevenson used to point out that usually it's the end teeth of our cutters, and the first mm or so of the flute, that get blunt, and encouraging people to use more of the edge they had paid for. So except for reconditioning industrial cutters flute sharpening maybe isn't so useful?

I can recommend the Acute system to hold and index cutters for the end teeth. Could probably be retrofitted to your Clarkson.

Cheers John, but I have a number of older second hand end mills that have blunt flutes, which would be handy to use occasionally.

I'm set up OK for end teeth, as I made a quick lash-up gizmo when I first got the Clarkson, originally using a drum brake hydraulic slave cylinder to provide the bore to run the collets in. This was in turn mounted on a bit of 3" square angle iron to provide a tilt and swivel facility. The casting helpfully had a round machined boss in between the two backplate mounting studs, so I just needed a hole of suitable size boring the the upright of the angle, and a couple of curved concentric slots for the two studs.

It's now been superseded by an adapted J&S universal head, which I came across broken in a pile of other bits from ebay.

I still need to make a longer sliding sub table for my planer-thicknesser blades, as they are 8", but there's only 6" throw on the Clarkson. I've got a load of heavy duty ball drawer sliders, which on their own rock too much, but as a parallel pair, with a little bit of tension between them, should to the job fine for woodworking machinery.

Bill