Regrinding carbide inserts

[Wheat.Millington]

Sorry is this is a stupid question - being a beginner I'm wrecking a lot of carbide inserts, including this nice expensive kyocera I recently picked up. This insert cut extremely well until I trashed it. Is this salvagable? Can it be reground on an ordinary stone?

 

[Wheat.Millington]

BTW If you're wondering about the other edge, it's much worse and presumably is unsalvageable.

 

[benmychree]

Regrindable? questionable, ordinary stone? no, need diamond wheel.

 

[RJSakowski]

Certainly not with an ordinary stone. A diamond wheel would be needed. Slight defects can be touched up but anything major most likely not. By slight, I mean something like a small chip from the corner that could be addressed by by increasing the corner radius. Your insert looks past that point.

I toss my inserts when they are trashed. That is why I still use brazed carbide. I redress the carbide until it is just a nub. Insert tooling is convenient and on a production environment where time is money, it is more expedient to throw a new insert in than the try to resharpen an brazed carbide or HSS tool. In a hobby shop, the dynamics are totally different.

 

[mikey]

You can absolutely resharpen carbide inserts but you need a good diamond wheel to do it, like an Accu-Finish machine. I have one and have sharpened and tuned up inserts BUT you cannot refresh a broken off, trashed insert like you show in the pics. The best thing to do is first, figure out why you trashed the insert the way you did and two, buy better inserts. Seco, Iscar, Kennametal all sell CCGT inserts like you're showing but the quality is far better. The Kyocera inserts are commonly not real Kyocera inserts; they're Chinese copies. While they work, they do not work well or for nearly as long.

 

[woodchucker]

You can absolutely resharpen carbide inserts but you need a good diamond wheel to do it, like an Accu-Finish machine. I have one and have sharpened and tuned up inserts BUT you cannot refresh a broken off, trashed insert like you show in the pics. The best thing to do is first, figure out why you trashed the insert the way you did and two, buy better inserts. Seco, Iscar, Kennametal all sell CCGT inserts like you're showing but the quality is far better. The Kyocera inserts are commonly not real Kyocera inserts; they're Chinese copies. While they work, they do not work well or for nearly as long.

It depends where you buy them from. A reputable dealer is going to get the real thing, if you are ordering on Amazon, or Ebay, chances are you are buying a knock off.

BTW this is why it's good to cut your teeth on HSS. You learn and get work done on HSS. Once you are competent and doing well you won't break as many inserts.

 

[DAT510]

Stefan Gotteswinter has a good YouTube video on regrinding carbide inserts.

 

[Larry$]

I have a tool & cutter grinder and sharpen my inserts. But the ones you show are past that point. Sharpened inserts cut well but don't stay sharp as long & may not break chips as well. There is very little overhang of an insert past it's tool holder support, that limits how deep your sharpening can go. Learn to sharpen HSS. It will cut most anything you will be using in a hobby shop including 4140. I've got a few inserted tools but I don't use them unless I really need to. @ $120 for a pack of 10 inserts!!! I have a few brazed carbide tools, they work but the carbide dulls relatively quickly (Chinese!) I can quickly touch them on the diamond wheels. The green wheels for a bench grinder can also do carbide. Don't breath carbide dust!

 

[compact8]

I wont bother to regrind it because globalization has driven carbide insert price down to a very low level. All my carbide inserts cost no more than 3 USD each and provided that the right type of insert is chosen, they cut all kinds of materials very well including stainless steel.

 

[ericc]

I occasionally braze these junk inserts onto a steel bar and then really flog them. But then you will need a brazing torch, as well as a diamond wheel. The value proposition is pretty low.