Question: Chip breaker ?

[scott99]

I have found that for me when using a 120 engraver the chip forms directly in front of the tool point. In short cuts this is no problem but when making long cuts it builds up and obscures the design line. What I have been doing is braking off the chip when it gets in the way and then continuing the cut. If this is what everybody does, no problem.

On the other hand I have always put a "chip breaker" on lathe tools to eliminate the problem of long wandering chip coils. Does anyone use a "chip braker" on their tools to keep this chip coil short. If so any info about their "chip breaker" would be appreciated.

Thanks scott99 :thinking:

 

[sam]

Yeah, break it off or give it a slight bend and keep cutting. Sometimes I think bending it out of the way as opposed to breaking it off lessens the chance of having a cut with a telltale interruption.

 

[lesholmes]

Scott,

Can you describe a "chip breaker"?

Les

 

[scott99]

HI,a chip breaker is a small cut or angle placed in a tool face to eliminate the creation of long tangle bound chip from tooling. I know that engraving and machining are not the same thing I just thought there might be a correlation that I could use. I am always surprized what people come up with when doing something all their lives.

scott99

 

[Andrew Biggs]

If I remember correctly....Ron Smith eluded to this as well and how he sometimes put a "chip breaker" on his tool face that would somehow break the chip off before it became a nuisance.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[jimzim75]

Interesting. I'd seen chip breaker technology on lathe tools. I wondered about applying it to gravers. A small diamond bur to the cutting face.
Now, I have to run out to the shop.

 

[fegarex]

I've tried it several times to make one but it never worked for me. Perhaps I wasn't doing it right.

 

[pilkguns]

Holding a properly sharpened graver vertical and making a tiny sweep across your stone will put a tiny 90 degree face at the bottom of the normal face. This will serve as a chipbreaker. Its funny that curls seem to be more apparent in different steels or different depth cuts. I have decided over the years that for the most part, its a distraction but not really a problem, your mind will think your graver into the right rotation, so the curl can just curl

 

[Ed Westerly]

I concur with Scott. I just have gotten used to it being in the way and engrave by telepathy most of the time!

 

[Tom Curran]

I recall Jerry Huddleston telling me to angle the face ever so slightly, which makes the curl form off to the side of the cut.

Tom

 

[KSnyder]

HI,a chip breaker is a small cut or angle placed in a tool face to eliminate the creation of long tangle bound chip from tooling. I know that engraving and machining are not the same thing I just thought there might be a correlation that I could use. I am always surprized what people come up with when doing something all their lives.

scott99

I used to operate Acme-Gridleys and we used chip breakers on drills. Seems to me the graver or chisel is not being "fed" fast enough for it to work. Maybe with air assist it may have enough "speed & feed" for it to work. myself , like most of the others said, I just live with it and sharpening by hand it (chip) usually runs off one side or the other.:hammer:

 

[jimzim75]

As I remember how it worked was to put slight depression above the cutting face. This could done with a diamond bur. Jim

 

[monk]

i have purchased old gravers that were 90's. a few had very tiny grooves from the face top. to very nearly the face bottom or point. i assumed these to be chip breakers but never used them with power assist, just push work. if i have not pitched them, i'll try with air assist and see if these grooves are chip breakers.

 

[Southern Custom]

Now you've given me something else to waste hours off time on. Trying to perfect a chip breaker point. Till now I just do what others have mentioned, control the curl with a slight angling of the graver. With straight lines you are often working by feel and looking a bit ahead of the tip. I find that by staring straight at the tip of the graver and going too slow causes more wandering. Moving with confidence at a steady pace yields the most consistent results.

 

[monk]

well, folks i managed to find one of the old 90's that had a groove in the face. with air assist shallow or deep the curl did not break. same with push work. i'm thinking the groove was simply to make sharpening the face a bit easier.

 

[John B.]

i have purchased old gravers that were 90's. a few had very tiny grooves from the face top. to very nearly the face bottom or point. i assumed these to be chip breakers but never used them with power assist, just push work. if i have not pitched them, i'll try with air assist and see if these grooves are chip breakers.

Hello Jay,
For cutting plastics such as gun grips, wood bone and ivory I make my 60 or 90 degree gravers with a central groove in the face.
I usually cut the groove in the face with a carbide bur and then resharpen the face so that the groove starts just above the point.
This may or may not act as a chip breaker but it does help to keep the chip from "bulldozing" in these materials.
Give it a try and let me know what you think.

 

[monk]

Hello Jay,
For cutting plastics such as gun grips, wood bone and ivory I make my 60 or 90 degree gravers with a central groove in the face.
I usually cut the groove in the face with a carbide bur and then resharpen the face so that the groove starts just above the point.
This may or may not act as a chip breaker but it does help to keep the chip from "bulldozing" in these materials.
Give it a try and let me know what you think.

now that's interesting. so much so, i'm gonna go get a hunk of bone and give it a whack. i have tried, with little luck, to do work on powder horns. uggh !

 

[mitch]

if i have to cut borders alongside a lot of gold line i'll sharpen the graver face so the 'polish grain' steers the chip away from the soft gold inlay*. with a 600 grit wheel, the chip has enough traction to follow the grain up the face of the graver. i typically cut borders on the 'far side' of the gold (also along any scribed line, if circumstances allow), so looking down on the graver face the polish grain runs from the tip up to the right. this means when sharpening on the wheel with the tool upside down, holding the fixture farther in toward the center of the wheel, with the graver pointing out toward the edge.

it can't direct the chip very much, so only about 10-15 degrees off the center line is plenty. more than than defeats the purpose.

*when cutting borders next to gold (or really any time you're engraving steel near an inlay), you must keep the curling chip in your peripheral vision and make sure it's not about to curl over and dig into the softer metal.

 

[John B.]

Sam, If you don't mind the prompt.........
I think Mitch's post about chip direction and cutting a "shadow line" next to gold should become a permanent Tip.

 

[dlilazteca]

if i have to cut borders alongside a lot of gold line i'll sharpen the graver face so the 'polish grain' steers the chip away from the soft gold inlay*. with a 600 grit wheel, the chip has enough traction to follow the grain up the face of the graver. i typically cut borders on the 'far side' of the gold (also along any scribed line, if circumstances allow), so looking down on the graver face the polish grain runs from the tip up to the right. this means when sharpening on the wheel with the tool upside down, holding the fixture farther in toward the center of the wheel, with the graver pointing out toward the edge.

it can't direct the chip very much, so only about 10-15 degrees off the center line is plenty. more than than defeats the purpose.

*when cutting borders next to gold (or really any time you're engraving steel near an inlay), you must keep the curling chip in your peripheral vision and make sure it's not about to curl over and dig into the softer metal.

Mitch,

Im not sure i get this, so your angling the face when sharpening so the bur moves away while cutting?

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