Worn tools

[Rob Davis]

Is it better to discard worn tools after using them or is it better to send them for resharpening after using. One theory is to but straight cutters and discard them when they wear, another is to resharpen comp bits, but some say resharpening only gets a reduced amount of life so hardly worth it...

Wondering what all you do with worn bits?

[Ryan Hochgesang]

Hi Rob,

This particular topic will probably vary quiet a bit from shop to shop. It's usually a good idea for each individual shop to run there own cost anaylsis on weather or not to use resharpened tooling, to find the ultimate question is it worth it. Some of the variables driving my statment on this would be as follows:
- Type of material being machined
- Cut quality demanded on finished parts
- Accuracy of finished parts (when using resharpened tools you measure new dia. & enter value in tool table of machine to ensure exact dia. being used by machine when cutting or creating nested code).
- Expertise of shop performing resharpening of tools, quality of reground tools when getting them back.
- Location of grinding shop relative to your machine shop.
- Cost of grinding service your using

I hope this information will be helpful when making your decision.