Cutting ceramic

[dgriffiths]

We backfill some of our epoxy thermoforming tools with fiberglass and epoxy coated ceramic spheres. I am possibly going to have to machine through some of the ceramic and fiberglass. Does anybody have any cutter suggestions. Diamond Coated???

[Bruce Caulley]

I have machined some macor and had good success with standard carbide. If you do a search on macor there was a recent thread.

 

Bruce

[Jeff Kemper]

Depends on how much cuttin' yer doin'. Depends on the finish and tolerence ya need. If yer just makin' clearence, carbide will do, but (fired) ceramic will chow on tools MUCH more than Macor.

 

Normally fired ceramic is ground with diamond grit.

 

Macor is designed to be machined. Still nasty on tools especially under 1/16". We've had 3/16" tools run fine thru 100 parts, though showing substantial wear. And diamond coated 1/32" drill

.7" deep lasting 250+ holes, where carbide shows wear at 6-8 and leaves tungsten carbide deposits on part at 15 holes.

 

Best to go with diamond coated for small tools in Macor, unless your run is short.

 

JK

[dgriffiths]

Thanks for the input. All I am doing is just running a couple of surface passes on the base of our expoxy tools so tolerance is not an issue. I would however like a fairly nice finish. Here is the kicker though. The machining will be done on a 5-axis Thermwood Router. Not the most rigid machine out there. HA HA. Anyway I will give the solid carbide a try. But will get a diamond coated cutter on order. Thanks again.

[MATT Q]

Rasp bits work well also crank that spindle up and put a mask on.