Making your own engraving V bits?

[Defender92]

So I got a free New Hermes pantograph on Facebook marketplace a few months ago. I got hooked on engraving. Now I have a few engravers, many master fonts, two edgers and I’m considering buying a New Hermes bit sharpener locally.

I learned you can pick up these machines locally for super cheap or even free. eBay prices seem crazy.

I’ve been buying 1/8” V bit cutters from bitsbits.com for $15 each. I found 1/8” tungsten carbide rod online for $12 per foot.

This got me thinking about making my own bits to save some money and shipping time.

Has anyone done this before?? I’m thinking of cutting the end of the bit flat with an end mill on my Bridgeport. Then turning the angle on the end with my lathe. Then finishing it on the New Hermes bit sharpening machine.

Thoughts? Any better ideas? I’ll admit, I’m an amateur on the Bridgeport and I’m concerned about getting the rod cut to exactly center. I don’t have a DRO.

 

[durableoreo]

Normally this is done on a D-bit grinder. The New Hermes models I've seen are adorable but might not be up to the task.

The Shars model seems like a good overall value with decent quality control. Stay away from the yellow models on eBay. They have such an assortment of poorly chosen features and their documentation is so limited that you're unlikely to find success.

I use a cutoff wheel to make blanks. Then split the blank with a cup wheel. Use a micrometer to gage your progress. Then cut the conical tip, again with the cup wheel. The rest is standard procedure.

I have been using resin-bond diamond wheels for carbide

You might be better off touching up the bits you have. Or do some shopping. 15 $ is too much. Also you can buy pre-split blanks. I think I spent about 2,000 $ on my grinder when all was said and done. Obviously you could spend less because you would be tooling up for a specific task but the time and money might be excessive for your situation. Don't let me talk you out of buying another tool but if the goal is to do more engraving, making your own bits may not be the best use of your money.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

So I got a free New Hermes pantograph on Facebook marketplace a few months ago. I got hooked on engraving. Now I have a few engravers, many master fonts, two edgers and I’m considering buying a New Hermes bit sharpener locally.

I learned you can pick up these machines locally for super cheap or even free. eBay prices seem crazy.

I’ve been buying 1/8” V bit cutters from bitsbits.com for $15 each. I found 1/8” tungsten carbide rod online for $12 per foot.

This got me thinking about making my own bits to save some money and shipping time.

Has anyone done this before?? I’m thinking of cutting the end of the bit flat with an end mill on my Bridgeport. Then turning the angle on the end with my lathe. Then finishing it on the New Hermes bit sharpening machine.

Thoughts? Any better ideas? I’ll admit, I’m an amateur on the Bridgeport and I’m concerned about getting the rod cut to exactly center. I don’t have a DRO.

View attachment 502737

i have some carbide d bits that i can donate to your knowledge base, send me a PM and i'll send some out

 

[Huub Buis]

Beware, Carbide steel contains a lot of cobalt. The grind dust is quit hazardous.

 

[OldCarGuy]

I use my Deckel SO Tool & Cutter Grinder to sharpen solid carbide blanks in my home shop. You'll spent over a twelve grand for a real one. Even a good used one is up to $8,000.00. You may be able to snag an iffy one for $500.00. Good luck at that though. However a new Chinese copy is in the $750..00 range. That will do a decent job making simple engraving cutter. You're going to need a diamond cup wheel to sharpen a carbide blank. A top quality wheel will cost about $400.00 each. Again a Chinese copy would be $40.00. Fifteen dollars doesn't sound too bad after all..

Invest in all this and you can make these,,

 

[Defender92]

Hmmmm. Thanks for the replies everyone. Sounds like this was a much bigger task than I expected. Or I should say expensive.

Although I think I am still going to buy the New Hermes sharpener to sharpen dull bits.

Considering that. There are some Black Diamond and Gorton grinders that pop up time to time. Would that accomplish the same thing?

My big engraver is the Gorton P1-2.

 

[durableoreo]

The Gorton grinders I've seen would fit the bill

 

[benmychree]

Beware, Carbide steel contains a lot of cadmium. The grind dust is quit hazardous.

Perhaps you mean cobalt, not cadmium? HSS contains cobalt, depending on the alloy carbide does not contain either element so far as I know of. Correct on grinding cobalt HSS, not good to breathe the dust.

 

[GeneT45]

A good Deckel clone is a worthy investment. I got one from Shars that I'm quite happy with. About $1000 at the time. Works great, and unlike the Deckel it takes a standard C5 collet, which is a huge advantage. Not only is it the right tool for carving your engraver bits, it'll sharpen drills, endmills, lathe tooling, make form cutters for the mill, boring bars, all kinds of stuff. It's not a "real" tool and cutter grinder, but it sure does a passable imitation. Stephen Gotteswinter, on YouTube, has some great videos on really getting additional functionality out of one. Well worth owning.

GsT

 

[Huub Buis]

Perhaps you mean cobalt, not cadmium? HSS contains cobalt, depending on the alloy carbide does not contain either element so far as I know of. Correct on grinding cobalt HSS, not good to breathe the dust.

Thanks, you are right, I mean Cobalt and edited my post.
The hardest HSS type without cobalt is HSS-M2.

Carbide, (the type inserts are made of) contains Cobalt, or is my translation wrong (native Dutch)
https://www.everloy-cemented-carbide.com/en/knowledge/