Engravers Network-1-866-727-7256 Cutters Used in the Engraving Industry

Engraving Basics - Cutters-Types, Composition & Tool Life

Types of Cutters
	Standard Cutter Also referred to as 'half-round'. The most frequently used tool for engraving plastics and metals. Standard cutting tools produce a cut with a 30° side angle for plastics and a 40° side angle for metals. They are available in a variety of tip widths.	Quarter Round Cutter with a double-split to provide a greater amount of chip clearance. Effective for many applications such as engraving stainless steel and acrylic; and profiling soft materials.

	Profiler Narrow tip for cutting out shapes and fine detail work. The standard angle on a Profiler is 15°. Recommended for applications where the smallest Parallel tip available is too wide or too fragile.	Parallel Produces a straight-edge cut. Can also be designed to drill holes. The smallest tip size available is .060.

	Burnisher Cutter designed to rub against material and remove a layer of coating without actually cutting the material. Best results are obtained by using very light spindle pressure and a burnishing attachment.	Dovetail For making an angled undercut in plastics for applications such as directories with slide-in legged strips. Produces a 15° bevel.

	Wide Cut Cutters which will cut wider than their shank diameter. Load from the bottom of the spindle, and available up to .500”. Wide-Cut tools are for engraving plastics only.	Ballnose A cutter with a rounded bottom tip that produces a rounded, rather than a flat bottom. This cutter is extremely effective for reverse filled, color filled acrylic.

	Bevel Cutter A tapered cutter with a 30 to 45 angle, designed to create a sloped edge on a plate. Makes core material very visible.	Braille Cutter Tools to help comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. A Braille Dot cutter is a tool that routs away the background material and leaves raised braille dots with rounded tops.

	Cutter-Bevelers Cuts out and bevels in one smooth operation. A Cutter-Beveler has a parallel cutting edge which profiles or cuts through the material, while the angled edge produces a 45° bevel for a depth of 1/3 to 1/2 of the material thickness. This can be particularly handy for odd shaped items, which are difficult or impossible to do with a beveler.	ADA Cut-Out Letter Cutters The Cut Out Letter tool is a quarter round tool with a 22° cutting angle used to create raised characters in accordance to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Composition/Makeup of Cutters

Micrograin Carbide
A fine grade of carbide that has the properties of remaining sharp longer and will produce cleaner cuts. Susceptible to breakage in smaller tip sizes.

High Speed Steel
Not as durable and wear resistant as carbide, but has greater tip resiliency for deep, fine cuts in metal.

Carbide Tipped Cutters
A carbide tip is brazed to the end of a steel shank. May warp, twist or rust less expensive than solid carbide tools unlike carbide.

Tool Life
The cutting conditions that determine the rate of metal removal are: the cutting, speed, the feed rate, and the depth of cut. These conditions and the nature of the material to be cut determine the power required to take the cut. The cutting conditions must be adjusted to stay within the power available on the machine to be used.

The cutting conditions must also be considered in relationship to the tool life. Tool life can be defined as the length of time that a cutting tool will cut before becoming dull or before it must be replaced. The end of life is defined as a given amount of wear on the flank of the tool. It must be understood that the cutting conditions and tool life are related and cannot generally be predicted since equipment type, care, tool material and kind of cutting are interrelated.

The good news of course is that an unbroken tool of normal wear may be sharpened several times - therefore eliminating expensive replacement cost.