Cutting Tools: Optimise or Replace? 5 tips to help guide your choice

In this article we’ll explore five tips to help guide your choice when evaluating your machine shop’s tooling choices, specifically whether to optimise or replace your cutting tools.

Unfortunately, whilst many do, not all machine shops get this right.

MSC’s Applications Engineers have seen first-hand in many production machine shops instances where cutting tools are frequently misapplied, including:

• Edge wear and damage that should set off alarm bells are either overlooked or misunderstood.
• The wrong grade or geometry might be used, with improper feeds, speeds and depths of cut making matters even worse.
• The result is waste and lost time, with less than stellar performance from machine shops.

The following five tips will help you to ensure you avoid this and optimise your cutting tool performance.

Even the most experienced machinists occasionally misdiagnose an application problem. 

Cutting tool manufacturers are always coming out with new and improved technologies, so it’s important to stay current, but just as important is the need for sound machining practices.

It is important to inspect cutting tools periodically, then adjust operating parameters or changing to a different grade, coating or geometry if needed.

Ensure you are using as short a gauge length as possible, making sure you’re applying the right feeds and speeds for the material, and practice routine toolholder maintenance too.

Signs of cutting tool wear include:

• Chipped or worn edges
• Notch wear on the cutting tool at the depth of the cut line
• Material buildup on the cutting surfaces
• Poor part quality and surface finish
• Discoloration of the tool or workpiece
• Increased noise from the machine spindle

Your machine shop may be cutting aluminium one day and stainless steel the next.

You may be asking yourself if you really need special grades or coatings for each material?

Why not just use a general-purpose or maintenance-grade cutting tool and ease back on the speeds and feeds enough to get through the current task?

If you’re happy to accept lower performance to get the job done, that might be fine, but this strategy can lead to bigger problems down the line.

Here’s why:

• Worn tools increase the load on expensive machinery, possibly causing damage to spindle bearings and electrical components.
• They can also damage the workpiece, generating enough heat to work harden the material, or snap off unexpectedly deep inside a hole.
• If you need to drill a series of holes in a stainless-steel component, or one made of superalloy, it is worth knowing that that there are cutting tools made especially for these materials, and by switching to one you can avoid burning through your tools, saving time and money.

As discussed above, spending more on an optimised cutting tools generally saves you money in the long run.

Cutting tool consumption represents between 3% and 5% of the total costs for producing any part.

Because of this, a 30% decrease in tooling cost or 50% increase in tool life only reduces part cost by roughly 1%.

A much more important factor to consider is cycle time:

• The key to higher profitability is the selection of high-performance tools that are optimised for the application.
• Spending a bit more for a coated tool almost always makes sense, as does switching to a tool with higher flute counts on finishing operations.
• Both will reduce cycle time, which means more product out the door at the end of each day.
• Consider looking into MSC Edge. Our groundbreaking range of multipurpose cutting tools have been designed to do 80% of your machining operations, with 20% of the tools, across a wide range of materials.

There’s a wealth of information online, but it can be difficult to keep up to speed with new developments whilst your focus is on getting product out of the door.

That’s why MSC’s Engineering team have created a dedicated Engineering hub within our website.

Here, you’ll find lots of engineering best practice and insight to help you get the most out of your tool selections and machining operations.

Toolholders that are nicked and dented on their locating surfaces or exhibit a rust-like appearance known as fretting should be discarded.

If not, this damage will translate into poor tool life and part quality and may damage the machine tool as well. As with cutting tools, only high-quality replacements should be used.

Regarding old drills and end mills, Maintenance shops are a great place to use refurbished tools - if they have not been pushed past the point of no return.

They will regrind them for a fraction of the cost you’ll pay for a new tool and can apply coatings or special grinds to increase their effectiveness.

• MSC Edge is our own revolutionary range of tools, designed to cut costs, not corners. Our brand ambition for MSC Edge is to offer a range of multipurpose cutting tools that have been designed to do 80% of your machining operations, with 20% of the tools, across a wide range of materials. Helping you to rationalise your tooling to do more, with less.
• Keeping ahead of the competition hinges on fine margins. Manufacturing costs. Productivity. Efficiency. Sometimes, a little change is all it takes, to change the game. We benchmark and test tools at our in-house Tech Centre, relentlessly pursuing better ways to make metalwork, less work. Giving you the edge to power progress and perform at your peak. Learn more about MSC Edge here.