Weldon countersinks

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Grinderman

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I bought a couple of zero flute Weldon c/sinks with the pilot on the bottom. I mainly use 1/4, 5/16 and 3/8 flatheads so I thought these would be useful. When using them though I found that they cut well at first but if you withdraw the cutter to check the depth with a bolt, then continue for a little deeper cut, it just sits there and does nothing, won't cut further.
Is there a special technique when using these? I running the drill press as slow as it goes, mild steel, plenty of lube.
Thanks
 
Can't believe no one replied.
I do notice that once you stop a zero flute from cutting that it does not cut with the same vigor as when starting the cut. The geometry of the cut starts out with the edge of the material tangential to the cutter, but as the cut progresses, the material becomes coplaner with the side of the cutter. Countersinking beyond the cutter's hole will not work obviously.
When using a zero flute cutter I set my depth stop on my drill press or mill to end up with the countersink depth I require, and perform the operation in one go.
If you search on sharpening a single flute countersink, it will give you insight as to how little relief there is on the back side of the cutting lip.
 
Thanks for the reply. I bought 3 of these as I said, 1/4,5/16 and 3/8. The 1/4 and 3/8 seem to work fine. The 5/16 however looks odd, maybe bad one?? I thought maybe it was just a surface coating that flaked off but the oddity on the shank end looks much deeper. What do you guys think? It's not on the cutting surface but makes me wonder about the overall quality.
 

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I use them on a regular basis and don't have any issues. I run them very slowly compared to a lot of cutting tools I use. Does it look like someone tried to resharpen it? These are tricky to resharpen......

Ted
 
Grinderman said:
Thanks for the reply. I bought 3 of these as I said, 1/4,5/16 and 3/8. The 1/4 and 3/8 seem to work fine. The 5/16 however looks odd, maybe bad one?? I thought maybe it was just a surface coating that flaked off but the oddity on the shank end looks much deeper. What do you guys think? It's not on the cutting surface but makes me wonder about the overall quality.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Not sure about the oddity on that cutter. What is evident is the conical relief (not comic relief I may point out) on the cutter, which allows the flute to cut.
Worse case scenerio, if you don't want to send it back (which I would seriously consider) is try sharpening it. You will most likely need to know how to do it at some point...
 
What type of material are you cutting with the trouble bit? There will be a lot of surface contact and possibly the work is work hardening if you are running a fast cutting speed. Like I said above, I run these very slowly. How slow? Well, not sure, but on the large diameter ones if I count fast I might be able to count the RPMs. You might have to apply some pressure to get it to start cutting again if the work is work hardening on you. Even mild steel can get a little slick using these cutters, especially if using an oil.

These bits are very tricky to sharpen. I remember seeing a video by Tom Lipton on sharpening these and it is not a simple operation.

Ted
 
Just cutting mild steel(1018] on the lowest speed of my drill press. The other 3 c-sinks I bought seem to cut well but not this one. I will probably contact the supplier on Monday and see about getting a replacement. Thanks for all the replies.
 
Just curious where you bought them. I had not seen them with the piloted point.
 
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