Facts It’s Important To Have Knowledge Of Carbide Burrs

Carbide Burrs (also known as Rotary Burrs) are used for cutting, shaping, grinding and for the removing sharp edges, burrs and excess material (deburring).

1. What material can Carbide Burrs provide on?
Carbide burrs works extremely well on many materials. Metals including steel, aluminum and iron, various wood, acrylics, fibreglass and plastics. When applied to soft metals including gold, platinum and silver, carbide burrs are excellent while they will last a long time without chipping or breaking.


Steel, Carbon Steel & Metal
Surefire
Aluminium
Titanium
Cobalt
Nickel
Gold, Platinum & Silver
Ceramics
Fibreglass
Plastic, Graphite Reinforced Plastic (CRP), Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic (GRP)
Brass, Copper & Bronze
Zinc
Wood
Different cuts of carbide burrs is going to be best suited to particular materials, start to see the next point below to discover more on the various cuts.

So what can You employ Carbide Burrs In?
Ideally carbide burrs are employed in Air Tools i.e Die Grinders, Pneumatic rotary tools and also speed engravers. Micro Motors, Pendant Drills, Flexible Shafts, and hobby rotary tools like a Dremel.

Use a handpiece that runs true i.e with no wobble.

Who Uses Carbide Burrs?
Carbide burrs are popular for metalwork, tool making, engineering, model engineering, wood carving, jewellery making, welding, chamferring, casting, deburring, grinding, cylinder head porting and sculpting. And so are employed in the aerospace, automotive, dental, metal sculpting, and metal smith industries to only a few.

2. Carbide Burrs Commonly Can be found in Two Cuts; Single Cut and Double Cut (Diamond Cut)
Single cut (one flute) carbide burrs possess a right handed (Up cut) spiral flute. These are usually used with stainless, hardened steel, copper, certain, and ferrous metals and may remove material quickly having a smooth finish. Use for heavy stock removal, milling, deburring and cleaning.

Heavy removal of material
Milling
Deburring
Cleaning
Creates long chips

Double cut carbide burrs are usually applied to ferrous and non ferrous metals, aluminium, soft steel as well as for all non-metal materials such as plastics and wood. They’ve got more cutting edges and can remove material faster. Double cut are occasionally referrred to as Diamond Cut or Cross Cut (2 flutes cut across one another) will leave a smoother finish than single cut because of producing smaller chips while they cut away the pad. Use for medium-light stock removal, deburring, finishing and cleaning. A double cut carbide burr is the most popular cut and definately will help you through most applications.

Medium- light elimination of material
Deburring
Fine finishing
Cleaning
Smooth finish
Creates small chips

3. What Speed or RPM if you work with your Carbide Burrs?
The pace at which you use your carbide bur within your rotary tool will depend on the material you have it on along with the contour being produced but it is reliable advice you don’t need to exceed speeds of 35,000 RPM.

4. Tend not to Apply A lot of Pressure
As with every drill bits and burrs, allow burr carry out the work and apply just a little pressure otherwise the cutting edges with the flutes will chip away or become smooth too quickly, lowering the life of your burr.

5. Carbide Burrs are not as easy Than HSS Burrs
Our Carbide Burrs are machine ground from the specially chosen grade of carbide. Because of the extreme hardness of the Tungsten Carbide they can be suited for far more demanding jobs than HSS (Very fast Steel).

Carbide Burrs also perform better at higher temperatures than HSS so that you can run them hotter, as well as longer.

HSS burrs are going to soften at higher temperatures so carbide is definitely a more sensible choice for too long term performance.

What Are The Advantages of Tungsten Carbide Burrs?
Endurance
Use for very long production runs
High stock removal
Perfect for using on many hard and tough materials
Ideal for Deburring, finishing, carving, shaping and smoothing welds, moulds, dies and forgings

6. Keep The Carbide Burr On The Move
When you use your carbide burr never ensure that is stays still for days simply because this may prevent the burr from digging and jabbing into the material causing unsightly marks and roughness.

End on an ‘up’ stroke to get a smoother finish for your work.

Stay Safe:
Always keep your burr shank is well inserted into the collet and clamped down tightly
Keep pressure light whilst the bur moving, concentrating on the best material first
Ensure your work is secured tightly in your workbench
Don’t snag or jam your burr to your work
Wear eye protection at the least, but even better use a full shield for your face
For more information about SF-1 Carbide Burrs see our new resource

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