I’m still a relative newbie to woodworking. I just bought a new rabbeting bit set and immediately dinged the cutters, so my rabbets aren’t totally smooth. The bit leaves what I can best describe as a tiny ledge along the cut conforming to the nick in the flutes. It may only be 1/128 inch or so, but it’s there.
Anyway, it’s a CMT, carbide-tipped, I believe. Can the cutters be resharpened to eliminate the nick? If so, one more question: will I be left with a bit that cuts smoothly, but is then off by whatever the depth of material that was removed in the sharpening process?
I’d hate to do it, but if I ruined the bit, I’d rather replace it while they’re still on sale…
Thanks,
Jeff
Replies
Grinding is cost effective but never as good as the factory new cutter.
Worth the trouble? Indeed.
Changes in geometry? Sometimes, but note: .010" off the OD, a serious amount of waste, is only a .005" short radially with this cutter. Do you work to 5 mils?
Routerbits
Can't say I'm working to those tolerances :-)Didn't think to ask: what sort of place might I contact to fix/regrind the bit?
I'd check with the local cabinet shops to see who they use. Look in the local yellow pages under sharpening.
or http://bullsharp.com/
http://www.ridgecarbidetool.com
I use a lot of of stuff from http://www.hersaf.com/shop/index.php/action/category/id/7/subid/11/
and Ridge Carbide...especially the insert tooling.
< Grinding is cost effective but never as good as the factory new cutter. > I try to be careful about using never and always, those are pretty big words that are easy to challenge. I went to your profile to see where you live. It sounds like you might benefit from finding a new sharpening service.Back through the years, there have been some pretty good, and then some pretty bad local sharpening services here. During one of those times when the local service was particularly rotten, I bought a really fine diamond wheel to mount on one of my grinders. Since then, I have sharpened thousands of bits, and I don't think that my freehand sharpening could be said to Never be as good as new. However, if your sharpening service uses a medium grit diamond wheel, then you may be safe to say that those will always be worse than factory sharpening.
Hype,
Another place to obtain sharpening services as well as a tremendous selection of tools is
Ballew Saw & Tool.
http://www.ballewsaw.com/
I use Ballew. Jack is very knowledgable and they do good work. I also bought my Freeborn shaper cutters from him, Freeborn actually sent me there and that's how I found them.John
I would most likely ignore it since it would come out in sanding. But, yes it can be sharpened.
Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
Carbide is rather brittle and it's not uncommon to chip a cutter. Carbide can be sharpened with diamond abrasives. Your local sharpening service can sharpen as well as replace chipped teeth and cutters. A grinding may remove the nick but it may not. In some cases you may have to buy a new bit. The bit will cut like new after sharpening. There will be some loss in the overall size of the bit, but nothing significant for a rabbet bit.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
To remove the defect in the wood raise the bit and make another pass.
And yes it does pay to have them sharppened.
Joe
I guess you hit something solid.....
These rabetting bits are, I believe, simply face sharpened, which is gonnaq reduce the diameter of cut a tad, and ergo, any semblance of "precice" rabbet width with the bearings and such.
If that worries you, I'd just buy another rabbet bit while they are still on sale.
But would it worry me? Not at all.
Why? because material thickness, the stuff you is rabbeting to accommodate for, why it simply varies so much that even if the bit and bearing did actually deliver a perfect 1/2" wide rabbet, chances are yer material ain't precisely 1/2"
What I have done is taken a d-handled router and mounted a rabbeting bit it in, but with the freakin bearing teat (or "####" if you will) and the bearing discarded, ie ground off.
Most of them rabbet bit sets are limited in scope of application, even if you use em with the supplied bearings, and even then, the wider rabbets require increasingly smaller bearings. where every little tad of sawdust represents a major "bump" to that little bearing.
Besides, when you is rabbeting , it pays to use a caliper to measure what is LEFT for depth of cut rather than what you cut off. Makes precise cabinet width that much more probable. And as for width of cut, that could vary depending on whether yer edgebanding the bottom edge of the material or not, let alone compensate for the thickness of the edgebanding.
just beacuse "they" sell em don't mean they are the cat's meow.
Eric in Cowtown.
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