Single Lip Cutter Grinder

Nice cutter grinder. If you want to sell it, you will get your $400 for it readily. I use mine for end mills, taps, reamers, drill bits, lathe bits, counter sinks... Some angles need to be cut with a flared wheel like Stefan Gotteswinter points out... (speaking of whom, his great video on the Deckel clone leaves very little not covered). I have a few attachments to make grinding some of the common tools a little more practical. So while folks say they were designed for only sharpening rotary single flute bits, that is true, but it is not at all they are limited to. Thinking outside the box will give you more utility with it (use all 3 lips on your wheel to reach different angles, for example, or switch to a thin disk for flutes). I use the machine once for every two hours of machine work on average (not from breaking tools, but reaching for a dull cutter mid-process) so I'm keeping mine. Before I got it, the dull bits were piling up. Now I'll buy lots of cutters and bits on eBay not caring if they're dull or sharp, because I can actually do something about it!
 
pontiac428 said:
Nice cutter grinder. If you want to sell it, you will get your $400 for it readily. I use mine for end mills, taps, reamers, drill bits, lathe bits, counter sinks... Some angles need to be cut with a flared wheel like Stefan Gotteswinter points out... (speaking of whom, his great video on the Deckel clone leaves very little not covered). I have a few attachments to make grinding some of the common tools a little more practical. So while folks say they were designed for only sharpening rotary single flute bits, that is true, but it is not at all they are limited to. Thinking outside the box will give you more utility with it (use all 3 lips on your wheel to reach different angles, for example, or switch to a thin disk for flutes). I use the machine once for every two hours of machine work on average (not from breaking tools, but reaching for a dull cutter mid-process) so I'm keeping mine. Before I got it, the dull bits were piling up. Now I'll buy lots of cutters and bits on eBay not caring if they're dull or sharp, because I can actually do something about it!
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I totally agree with pontiac428. It isn't something I use everyday but when I do it's worth it. Mine is a clone that uses R8 collets as that's what my mill uses and it took some digging but found one on eBay.I think all in I have $700 with the different attachments. I originally found a used one for $400 but it used the Deckel style collets that only went to 12mm ( needed to be able to chuck up 3/4")and the guy that was selling it told me it wouldn't do end mills. I decided the main drawback was the collets after watching several YouTube. Stephan said you can't do end mill flutes in his vid but i have the attachment for flutes and I needed to mod an old endmill so gave it a try. It was tricky like everything the first time, but the endmill works great. It was an oversize and I needed 5/16" so I was able to cut the flutes down in the process of sharpening. I got a pile of dull and worn out endmills with my mill and have been able to fix them (great practice!)and in several instances make custom grinds for specific jobs. I've not tried the drill bit sharpener yet.
 
Pontiac428 and C-Bag, thank you. Actually, thanks to you all. I will keep it and learn how to use it. Perhaps I will look at customizing the collets, maybe look at some different applications. I picked up a Harig Cutter Grinder Fixture that I can use on my surface grinder for anything that this Alexander won’t do..... once I sort out how to use it. Time to slow down on buying stuff I think. Best regards, to you all.


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I was almost ready to pull the trigger on a Deckel clone like the one in the video but i heard or read they do not sharpen drills or end mills very well. That was the main reason for me to get one.
 
ddickey said:
I was almost ready to pull the trigger on a Deckel clone like the one in the video but i heard or read they do not sharpen drills or end mills very well. That was the main reason for me to get one.
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There is truth to that. You need a linear shaft work head to do flutes, but those are common. You lose the ability to plunge aggressively with end mills because this system can't grind the back cut for chip clearance all the way to center. Other grinders can. So that is a compromise I have to live with. As a hobbyist, it gives me some great capabilities, making the end mill trade-off a triviality.

(from mobile)
 
pontiac428 said:
There is truth to that. You need a linear shaft work head to do flutes, but those are common. You lose the ability to plunge aggressively with end mills because this system can't grind the back cut for chip clearance all the way to center. Other grinders can. So that is a compromise I have to live with. As a hobbyist, it gives me some great capabilities, making the end mill trade-off a triviality.

(from mobile)
Click to expand...

I am willing to sacrifice the ability to plunge cut. In most cases I have cutters in multiples. What I might do is keep one for plunge cuts and the remainder for facing. I can always send out my “plunge capable” cutters to be sharpened or just buy new. However, being able to sharpen the remaining cutters, and in effect lengthening their usable life in my “hobby” shop, the machine will pay for itself, probably sooner than I think.


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Like so much of machining the ability to adapt something that wasn't necessarily meant for the job but is very close is key. It took some thought after getting mine and getting actual grind spec angles before I was more comfortable with the concepts. My main problem was getting enough clearance between the head and the grinder as I was mostly grinding 1/2" and larger endmills. I was trying to use the 1/2" collet that came with the machine and noticed it was broached shorter(shallower?) than my old set of Enco collets that came with my mill/drill. To be able to use these deeper broached collets made clearance much easier. There is a ton of other adjustments on the head to be able to slide it back further (y axis of the head) plus an X axis adjustment. I really had to learn to think in all directions as they are all interdependent.

Mine also suffers from the usual lack of attention as my flute grinding attachment is very sloppy and this adds to the already tricky nature of grinding flutes. It is far from perfect and if I was actually trained on a real tool and cutter grinder I'd probably not be so happy with mine. But I so appreciate being able to finish a weekend project and not have to wait on ordering a cutter.
 
Just an FYI. Grizzly stopped selling their Deckel clone, Taiwan made.
 
Nice piece of kit for 400$ - you will love it!
 
ddickey said:
Just an FYI. Grizzly stopped selling their Deckel clone, Taiwan made.
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The Grizzly one I'll not miss. They wanted $1500 and it used the little Deckel collets and no attachments. The Shars unit is the one IMHO. And it's still under $1,000 with ll the attachments.
 
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