Used endmills

[Conrad_R_Hoffman]

I bought a fixture to sharpen the ends on my surface grinder. The fixture works well enough, but you have to shorten the end mills a bit if you can't grind the flutes. Given the cost of a decent 1/2" end mill, I think it's worth it, but not every end mill can be saved. OTOH, "real" machinists will change out an end mill before I would, so there's a pretty good supply of end mills with minor corner wear that I can clean up nicely. Not sure if I'll tool up for doing the flutes as that seems to cost more to do well. Also, a surface grinder isn't a very good tool and cutter grinder.

[ChipMaker4130]

I think Mr Hoffman alluded to the key question: Do you need to sharpen the flutes or just the end? 'Touching up' the end isn't usually too big a job and in many cases, especially in a home shop, that's the part that gets dull.