Broaching cutters

[Wozzaaah]

Having just puchased a shiny new (ridiculously cheap!) Evolution ME5000 mag drill kit from one of our members (Dafydd) I now need some cutters. My question is a simple one, M2 or M42 grade steel? I've seen cutters in both grades with M2 being the cheaper. For occasional use would M2 last me or would I be better off spending the extra and going for M42?
Woz

 

[bawjaws]

sorry i cant answer that question but can you tell me how much he sells them for, ive seen them on ebay for 200 and i want one!, cheers

 

[irondarren]

M2 cutters are fine, just keep them nice and cool, get some lubricant. they will do plenty of holes.

 

[Wozzaaah]

sorry i cant answer that question but can you tell me how much he sells them for, ive seen them on ebay for 200 and i want one!, cheers

It's probably best to PM Dafydd and let him price one for you as he has 3500s and 5000s used, new and refurbished so you'll have plenty of choice. Thanks ID, I'll go for M2 ones. Diywelding seems to be one of the cheapest suppliers so I'll give him a shout.

 

[irondarren]

Just checked Diy weldings prices, it says comes with a free pilot drill? Guess they mean pilot pin. Prices are very good, about 45 pence per millimetre and price seems to include VAT as well. can't argue with the prices (if price includes pilot pin thats dam good value indeed)

 

[Hitch]

Parker tools are pretty good for cutters.
A can of spray cutting oil works 10 times better that the water coolant, and doesnt make such a mess.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Just checked Diy weldings prices, it says comes with a free pilot drill? Guess they mean pilot pin. Prices are very good, about 45 pence per millimetre and price seems to include VAT as well. can't argue with the prices (if price includes pilot pin thats dam good value indeed)

It's been a while but I finally got round to ordering a selection of broaching cutters from DIYwelding, ordered yesterday mid afternoon, delivered today about 10am. 2 off 12mm, 1 off 14mm, 1 off 16mm, 1 off 19mm, 1 off 20mm, 2 off 22mm, 1 off 25mm and 1 off 32mm, the whole lot was just a tad over £100 delivered. Every cutter comes with a pilot pin so I've got a nice bag of them. Great service from diywelding, highly recommended .

Just found out the price of pilot pins, anywhere between £2 and £3 each so that makes the cutters even more of a bargain

 

[Hitch]

Watch out when buying different makes of cutter, it seems that a few different pin sizes are used.

 

[Wozzaaah]

All the cutters above 14mm came with a 1/4" pin but the 12mm ones came with smaller pins. Most of them are genuine Rotabroach too, only one is different, branded Alfra.

 

[Hitch]

Alfra also make magdrills, amongst other things.
When you have 5 or 6 machines, with 100 cutters, long and short it gets confusing

Thats why i couldnt be bothered to change the cutter when i showed you one

Plenty of oil and dont force them and they will last ages. If the become dull, theres plenty of place that offer sharpening services for them.

 

[Wozzaaah]

I've seen Alfra mag drills for sale, never even heard of Alfra before. My next question was going to be about sharpening the cutters, looking at them it's not the sort of thing you can do on a bench grinder. Any contacts and any idea how much they charge? Hopefully it will be a good while before I need any done but I tend to abuse stuff so I need to be prepared .

 

[Hitch]

I couldnt tell you how much it costs, but i think its done per edge, so a 14mm cutter with 4 flutes will be half the price of a 28 with 8 flutes

We use Davenports saws in Yeovil, probably somewhere much closer to you though.
Accurate cutting services do it aswell.

 

[Wozzaaah]

I couldnt tell you how much it costs, but i think its done per edge, so a 14mm cutter with 4 flutes will be half the price of a 28 with 8 flutes

We use Davenports saws in Yeovil, probably somewhere much closer to you though.
Accurate cutting services do it aswell.

I see Rotabroach offer a sharpening service as well, I expect they're pretty dear though. Thanks Hitch, hopefully they'll last me a while

 

[Pete.]

We use the tool steel ones at work sometimes - I never bother with a pilot. We get the bigger ones sharpened and it doesn't cost a lot. I've even sharpened them with my mini-grinder out on site to finish a job. We use pretty good quality ones, but I had occasion to use some tungsten tipped ones last year supplied by the customer and they were bloody fantastic.

Just noticed the thread date - goddamn spanners catching me out when I just woke up