Gunsmithing out of curiosity

[jr81452]

how do you shape a carbide point? say you had a 0.25"D x 1"W x 1.5"L carbide flat and wanted to shape an intricate cutting tool, for example the blade on a Giraud, how would you machinists go about it? i don't have a specific application in mind, just got to thinking about it and peaked my curiosity.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

Re: out of curiosity

Unless it is sintered into the desired shape to begin with, the only way that carbide can be shaped/sharpened is with a silicon carbide wheel on a bench grinder.

Period.

Now maybe some NASA types have a fancy laser, or watercutter that can do the job, but I wouldn't know about that.

 

[jr81452]

Re: out of curiosity

so you shape carbide with carbide? go figure. i'd have thought diamond tooling would be the tool for the job. so Giraud has his bits sintered into the shape he wanted? what kind of company would do that small scale? i'd assume you would need to make a sizable order before they would even bother with you. heck, i needed some cast acrylic rod for a project one time, and had to order 1000ft before any company would do a custom order. and that is way simpler than sintering.

 

[tfsron]

Re: out of curiosity



Are you thinking about a trimmed case mouth that is not so sharp? If so, Giraud has three different cutters, all same price.

Good shooting,
Ron

 

[Victor N TN]

Re: out of curiosity

The shop that used to grind our special tools used a diamond wheel setup. They cut on the face of the wheel instead of the OD. They had a couple of older machines that used templates. But the newer ones were CNC.

I have seen guys use blue carborundum for course stuff. But it won't do small stuff.

 

[jr81452]

Re: out of curiosity

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Ron Morrison</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

Are you thinking about a trimmed case mouth that is not so sharp? If so, Giraud has three different cutters, all same price.

Good shooting,
Ron </div></div>

no, i was just wondering what the process was. i only used Giraud as an example because i know he has an intricate design to his carbide.

 

[BLAWTON]

Re: out of curiosity

Pacific tool and gauge can do what you want to it i believe. They grind strange carbide stuff for us all the time.