Sharpening Holloing cutter ?

Dan Mosley

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Palm Springs, Ca
How do you sharpen the small (I think 3/16th) cutter that goes into the swivel tool ??
Today i sharpened it by hand because pliers will not hold it still. I am thinking of a couple other ways to do this but i wanted to see how you other hollowers are doing it.
 
On my grinder, just like a scraper. I even use the same angle setting as I do for the scrapers. Here's a pic of the big cutter, but I do them all the same way. I hold the cutter by hand. It only takes on or two swipes on the stone (grinder running, of course) to refresh the edge.

Hollowing Cutter Setup 03 - 800.jpg

Hollowing Cutter Setup 04 - 800.jpg

Hollowing Cutter Setup 05 - 800.jpg

Hollowing Cutter Setup 06 - 800.jpg

If you're having trouble holding onto the cutter, I'm guessing you're either using too much pressure, or your wheel is out of round (or balance) and in need of dressing.
 
Yeah, you definitely want to use the platform. Otherwise you won't be able to get a consistent edge or angle.

I bought a few tool bits from Enco for some 1/2" boring bars I made, but other than those, I'm still using the bits that came from Randy with the hollowing rig. At the rate I'm going, it'll be another 5 years before I have to buy more, and then I'll probably just order them from Randy.
 
Yes agree I would for sure get them from Randy - I was thinking about carbide tips/blanks and im not sure if he has carbide blanks but ill ask when i get ready to order. I know he has the HSS ones and I would rather order from him anyway. Ill ask him then if he has the carbide at that time.
What I did was to cut the 3/16 HSS cutter in two pc's - the reason was so it did not stick out so much giving me the ability to make smaller entry holes and of course two cutters as we talked about earlier. Then I reground the tip to more of a bullnose scrapper - just preference i suppose but i like it that way. I noticed that by cuttting them in two that i would probably be needing another blank sometime in the future because they are pretty short now but I did achieve what I was trying to do.
 
You'll be surprised how long those little half-bits last. ;)

And I don't think you'll find carbide tool bits in that format. If you do, you won't be able to sharpen them on a conventional grinder anyway. About the only thing that will sharpen carbide is a diamond wheel. You may be thinking of cobalt, not carbide. I've tried the cobalt bits and haven't really seen a big difference. I think they may keep the burr on the edge a little longer, but I'm not positive.
 
I hold all them by hand. I do like Vaughn and set the angle of the platform to the same angle as my scrapers. When the need resharpening I just give the a swipe one way and then back.
 
How do y'all sharpen the little teardrop shaped cutters?
They require a ten degree angle and are almost too small to hold and heat up quickly.
Doing by hand with a small diamond file hasn't worked for me.
 
Frank, I do the teardrop (and other shape) scraper cutters by hand as well. I have no idea what angle it is...again, I use the same platform setting as I use for my scraper and HSS tool bit sharpening. They do get a bit warm, but once you have the profile you want, it only takes a quick single pass on the wheel to touch up the edge. Like other scrapers, they rely on a burr to do the wood cutting, and the single pass on an 80 grit wheel does trick for me.

There are other folks who use a burnisher to raise the "hook" of the burr. That's how Tormek recommends doing it, although I've not tried it yet. You essentially grind the profile on a fine wheel (or with a diamond file), then burnish the edge like you would a card scraper.
 
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