How would I cut a solid carbide double end mill in 2?

[gellfex]

Would anything do it except for a diamond cutting disk? Would my 10" tile saw work without destroying the blade?

[nickel-city-fab]

I have actually done this with normal zip discs in a 4" grinder. It eats the discs unless you feed slow. Its the heat buildup that gets them, softens the resin. I had to shorten up a handful of spotting drills.

[BCRider]

A tile saw does cut carbide. But it leaves a fair amount of chipping at the edges of the cut. That's because by carbide sharpening standards the masonry and ceramic tile saw blade diamond matrix is very coarse.

I tried shaping a brazed carbide tool with my tile saw. It shaped it fine but the edge was again badly chipped and I would need to then polish it back a good 5 to 8 thou to get past the chipping. Which will be not only possible but easily done after I get off my backside and order up the lapidary discs for the NEXT project as was passed around in a recent thread.

[gellfex]

I have actually done this with normal zip discs in a 4" grinder. It eats the discs unless you feed slow. Its the heat buildup that gets them, softens the resin. I had to shorten up a handful of spotting drills.

Cool! What thickness? This is for a 3/16 endmill, so I'd probably use a 1/16 x 3" disk in an air cutoff tool.

[nickel-city-fab]

Cool! What thickness? This is for a 3/16 endmill, so I'd probably use a 1/16 x 3" disk in an air cutoff tool.

I did some 3/8 thick and one 1/2" but that took a while and 2 disks. A 3/16 should be doable with one disk and very careful feed

Place I used to work did tungsten rod grinding and cutting among other things.... they had an old centerless grinder with an adapter head with a disk 5" by .020 and it was just a hard grade resin disk in a very accurate spindle

[mattthemuppet]

I think I've done this (might have read it though) - score a line around the end mill using a diamond disk, like one of those cheapies from HF. Wrap the endmill in a piece of cloth, position the scored part over the gap between the jaws of a bench vise and give the score line a short sharp whack with a hammer. Should snap neatly in two.

If it doesn't, someone else told you, right?

[bob_s]

A friend, who owns a denturist clinic supplied me with the ultimate cutting disc for a dremel. It is a 1 inch diameter, 0.003 inch thick diamond disc. Chucked the 1/4 inch solid carbide cutter in the lathe and just let the dremel do it's thing high speed low cutting rate took about 10 minutes to slice through. The polished appearance of the end of the end mill was the only way you'd know it had been cut.

[old mart]

Scoring does work quite well, and the deeper the score, the less chance of a bad break. A small half round or triangular diamond file will do it.

[garyhlucas]

The 1-1/2" dremel diamond cutoff wheel ought to do the job quite well.

A guy on the CamBam forum just got an old Wire EDM and is shaping carbide into boring bars and such!

[Bented]

Why exactly would someone want to do such a thing?
Please explain this.

[gellfex]

Why exactly would someone want to do such a thing?
Please explain this.

See my thread on making a high speed spindle accessory. By cutting the double ended in half I don't have to deal with drilling and reaming a 2" deep 3/16 bore for the mill holder on my next version. I think the hole wandered a little because the endmill sticks when it's all the way in.

It sounds like the carbide disk is going to be my first try. Scoring and snapping sounds like too much fun.

[AWS]

Why exactly would someone want to do such a thing?
Please explain this.

Ages back I needed to bore a 10mm hole with a Taig, but no boring head. No problem, 10mm endmill was fairly cheap. Double ended not much more, so ordered that.

Crap, spindle bore not big enough to swallow it.

So cut it in half and had two 10mm endmills for not much more than just one.

[JRouche]

I have some stuff that will cut it, been modifying carbide to suit my needs for some time.

You want it sliced length wise or cross sectional ?

Do NOT in fact grind or cut carbide without a mask.

CBN is my go to vs PCD.

Though with a low iron content in carbide I like the diamond bits more. It just cuts fast, and doesn't get eaten up with the heat and iron. CBN does not cut as fast as PCD bits with tungsten carbide with my use.

Just saying. JR

[Mcgyver]

my EDM would do it......very slowly, but its automatic and doesn't even notice its carbide