The Best Tin Snips of 2024 for Your Metalwork Projects, Tested - types of wire cutters

If you plan on sharpening bits with a bench grinder, this General Tools 825 Attachment, when securely mounted to your benchtop, can give you clean points and accurate angles.

Being an early adopter, Heuer sees laser blanking eventually becoming the dominant blanking process in automotive. “In my opinion, laser blanking will substitute conventional blanking. The technology is a modern and innovative way to optimize the blanking process and increase efficiencies. And dies that are optimized for laser blank geometries will help make laser blanking more beneficial.”

The Fabricator is North America's leading magazine for the metal forming and fabricating industry. The magazine delivers the news, technical articles, and case histories that enable fabricators to do their jobs more efficiently. The Fabricator has served the industry since 1970.

Tim Heston, The Fabricator's senior editor, has covered the metal fabrication industry since 1998, starting his career at the American Welding Society's Welding Journal. Since then he has covered the full range of metal fabrication processes, from stamping, bending, and cutting to grinding and polishing. He joined The Fabricator's staff in October 2007.

The Drill Doctor 500X is our best overall choice, regardless of your skill level, for its mid-range price and the variety of bits it accepts.

The laser cutting work envelope has three laser cutting heads, each with a separate 4-kW IPG fiber laser power source. The heads move in the X direction as well as Y (across the strip).

Andreas Heuer, head of forming technology at Mercedes-Benz for the Gaggenau and Kuppenheim plants, has managed the Kuppenheim plant’s transition to laser blanking, which began in 2017. Photo courtesy of Daimler AG.

It’s not the cheapest option on our list, but if you’re looking for a sharpener that can accept a wide range of bits, the Drill Doctor 750X is a great choice.

According to Hunger, Daimler’s lines are reaching overall equipment effectiveness (OEEs) levels beyond 75 percent. “We’ve never been able to reach such a level in a conventional blanking line,” he said.

Daimler blanks cosmetically critical outer body parts, hence the need for a brush-based blank cleaning process after laser cutting. “Dirt and dust contamination were major concerns for us,” Heuer said, adding that even without the extra cleaning step, the process left “only minor dust that would be irrelevant for our following process steps.

From here stacking can occur one of two ways. If the part orientation allows for it, and the gravity shedding is proven to be reliable, then cut parts can flow directly to the stackers, just as they would in a no-scrap situation, while the scrap falls into a scrap chute and into a bin. Alternatively, a series of robots can grasp the parts out of the skeleton and transport them over the scrap chute onto a conveyor belt leading into the stacker.

What about other areas of metal fabrication? According to Hunger, the technology eventually could find a home in more service centers outside the automotive supply chain, and even at large sheet metal fabricators, particularly those that consume a large amount of certain material grades and thicknesses—enough to buy a coil at a time.

Unlike other sharpeners that offer one or two angles, you can customize this sharpener to create to any angle from 115 to 140 degrees. The 750X is large enough to accept bits up to 3/4-in., and it can create or sharpen split-point bits.

Not necessarily. Laser blanking lines have made their way to some early adopters around the world, including SET Enterprises, a Michigan-based metal service center. In 2016 Daimler installed two laser blanking lines at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Kuppenheim, Germany. One more laser blanking line started production at another Mercedes-Benz plant in Germany at the beginning of this year, and a fourth line is in assembly stage.

Andreas Heuer, head of forming technology at Mercedes-Benz for the Gaggenau and Kuppenheim plants, began looking at the process at first for purely pragmatic reasons: The company didn’t want to alter its existing plant to make room for huge machine foundations, looping pits, and a high bay for the overhead cranes required to change blanking dies.

“We have no need for additional space for die storage, and we don’t need overhead cranes for die changes anymore,” he said. “The high flexibility that comes along with this technology is also very beneficial for us, because we have an increasing number of vehicle types.

Today’s auto industry has more model variation than ever, which of course has made die changes a target for improvement. Single-minute exchange of dies (SMED) is a great idea, but not having a die to change in the first place is even better.

One day in early 1974, the then editors of The FABRICATOR perused a manuscript about a bleeding-edge technology that had spent years in the lab but was just then starting to make an appearance on the fabrication shop floor. Next to a grainy photo of a 500-watt CO2 laser mounted onto an oxyfuel cutting machine, the article stated: “Now, after all these years of promise, lasers have become an acceptable metalworking tool.”

As Hunger explained, laser blanking has several denesting scenarios, where good parts are separated from scrap. The first involves jobs that cut nests that leave no scrap whatsoever. Daimler’s laser-blanked hoods, common-line-cut one after the other, are a prime example. The hood blanks span the full width of the strip, emerge from the laser cell, pass through a cleaning process, then are sent down separate conveyors to high-performance stackers that are similar to those used on traditional blanking lines.

The critical elements are denesting and stacking. As Hunger explained, certain automated denesting approaches on a laser blanker can follow some of the same strategies as automated denesting from a flat-bed laser. For instance, smaller parts can be tabbed together and lifted out by the robot as one unit.

“As of today we can say that the equipment, like traditional blanking lines, needs frequent cleaning to ensure blank cleanliness. We currently do a biweekly standard cleaning and a half-yearly intensive cleaning of all conveyors.”

Daimler now is using laser blanking to produce several cosmetically critical outer body components. “The plant is achieving a line speed in some applications up to 60 meters per minute,” said Germany-based Manuel Hunger, director of sales at Schuler, which designed and built Daimler’s laser blanking lines. “For instance, the line has produced more than 40 hoods per minute.”

If you do a lot of drilling, a drill bit sharpener a smart buy. It saves you time, because you won’t waste minutes struggling to drive a dull bit through your workpiece. And it saves you money, because you aren’t throwing out dull bits all the time.

Of course, as order volumes grow, laser cutting traditionally has made less economic sense. This remained the case even as the fiber laser took the market by storm more than a decade ago. A fantastically fast fiber laser looks incredibly productive, but the cutting head still needs to trace the part’s profile.

“We cut blanks for all outer body parts and bigger structural parts for the main body for Mercedes-Benz cars and trucks,” Heuer continued. “We use the typical grades used by other car manufacturers, like galvanized steel and aluminum, ranging from 0.65 to 1.5 mm thick.”

Coil and leveler-cassette changes offer quick changeover from one material to another. Daimler, for instance, uses an automated process in which an operator inspects the material and initiates the changeover.

Of course, part volumes need to be adequate. “The laser blanking system is not ideal for handling [many] different shapes at the same time,” Hunger said, adding that it also requires nontabbed parts to be at least 250 mm long or wide.

Luckily, a good drill bit sharpener can not only get them back in shape, but reinvigorate bits that snapped in half during aggressive use.

This six-inch DeWalt DW756 has the power to tackle various sharpening tasks, including drill bits. Safety guards reduce the chances of dangerous flying debris and sparks, and the adjustable tool rests make it easy to securely position whatever you’re sharpening. With its extremely durable cast iron body, this small but mighty tool can handle heavy use.

Sure, prototype and high-mix, low-volume fab shops won’t likely see a use for such laser blanking equipment in the foreseeable future. But if part volume grows, the story could change. If a fabricator’s or service center’s mix of cut profiles can be reliably denested, stacked, and sent quickly downstream, laser blanking then becomes a distinct possibility.

“[Laser blanking] also has simplified geometric changes during the introduction of new die sets [for forming],” Heuer continued, adding that some blank geometry changes have aided downstream drawing processes. “For some sets, we created six to eight different [blank] geometries. This has allowed us to implement changes quickly without disrupting current production.”

Emily Wilkins, founder of Marketing Metal, helps job shops, machine shops, metal fabricators, custom equipment builders, and other...

The core technology of laser blanking lies not with the laser cutting itself, but instead what happens underneath the kerf. The strip needs to keep moving, have space underneath for evacuating molten material, and remain fully supported—all at the same time.

After cutting comes denesting and stacking, two critical elements without which laser blanking wouldn’t make much sense. Yes, some laser blanking systems have become so fast in certain applications that they’re outpacing some conventional blanking systems, but that fact wouldn’t mean much if the blanks had to be sorted manually.

If you’re a DIYer beginner and you don’t need a high-end drill bit sharpener, consider the affordable Drill Doctor 350X. Despite the low price, it features a diamond wheel and is simple to use. This drill bit sharpener can only create 118-degree angles, though, so keep that in mind if you need to work with 135-degree bits.

Instead of holding the bits in your hand, this attachment holds them for you. Its straightforward adjustment settings make it easy to select the angle, although it’s not ideal for use with bits smaller than 1/8-inch.

If you can’t afford or don’t need any of the sharpeners above, this Drill Bit Sharpener might be for you. It’s powered by your drill and doesn’t require an electrical outlet, so it’s convenient for off-site projects with limited electricity. It’s not as accurate as a dedicated or bench grinder drill bit sharpener, but in a pinch it’s certainly better than nothing.

There are more types of drill bit sharpeners than you might think. Some are more useful than others, depending on your specific bits and experience level. Make sure you’re choosing the best one for you. Here’s what to look for:

This affordable Wen BG4276 bench grinder provides two grinding wheels for a fraction of the cost of similar options. A large, adjustable work light ensures you have a clear view of your workpiece. With 60-grit and 36-grit wheels, you can sharpen lots of tools well as drill bits.

High-quality drill bits aren’t cheap. And once they become dull, they’re ineffective and more likely to “walk” around and damage your workpiece.

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The latest laser blanking lines exhibit the “toolless” flexibility that most metal fabricators with flat-bed cutting lasers have enjoyed for years. But some laser blanking lines also match, and sometimes exceed, the speed of many press-based blanking lines installed around the world. It’s a feat that The FABRICATOR editors in 1974 probably couldn’t have imagined.

A stamping press can cut a blank’s profile all at once, hence the stamping press’s dominance in high-volume blanking, particularly in the automotive industry. There’s no way a laser could outpace a traditional blanking line with mechanical stamping presses—right?

To make this happen, laser blanking systems make smart use of telescopic conveyors. In Daimler’s laser blanking systems, two wide conveyors—one ahead of the active laser head(s) and one behind, positioned with a consistent gap between them—move forward and backward in the X direction (with and against the material flow), synchronized with the cutting action. This ensures the system always maintains a consistent gap underneath the cutting action, where gravity and a vacuum pull molten material, particulate, and fume away from the cut itself. Schuler calls this synchronized conveyor and fume extraction system “DynamicFlow Technology.”

Looking at the plant’s laser blanking line in action is like watching a highly choreographed dance, with each electronic and mechanical component playing a critical part. A coil is loaded onto a dual-coil payoff system as the previous coil is in process. If the new material requires it, the precision roller-leveler cassettes swap out automatically within a few minutes. When a coil change needs to happen, the uncoiler picks up and presents the new coil, which is fed with slack (no looping pit) through the leveler and into the laser cutting system.

Two wide telescopic conveyors move in tandem underneath the active laser cutting heads, maintaining a consistent gap underneath for fumes and molten material to evacuate.

This sharpener handles pretty much any material, including carbide, black oxide and high-speed steel, and it can create split-point tips. It doesn’t offer the impressive angle ranges of the Drill Doctor 750X, but you can create the all-important 118- and 135-degree angles.

Cars and trucks of the future also will need to be lighter and safer, hence the demand for advanced high-strength steels and other materials with seemingly ever-growing strength-to-thickness ratios. These materials aren’t kind to blanking dies. The laser, on the other hand, doesn’t care about a material’s tensile strength, just the thickness and the material grade’s ability to absorb the laser’s energy. Laser blanking doesn’t eliminate all concerns about high-strength materials—the coil-fed material still needs to be leveled before it reaches the laser cutting heads—but removing the blanking die does mitigate a fair number of technical hurdles.

Another denesting scenario involves a nest with scrap that falls away in a so-called “gravity shedding” operation, which occurs outside the laser work envelope. This method works only if the scrap is oriented and shaped in such a way that it falls easily away from the strip.

A blanking die is most cost-effective when it produces blanks with straight lines and angles. A laser prefers to work with a contoured blank, where the cutting head never has to decelerate entirely, turn, and accelerate around a sharp corner—and it just so happens that many of those contoured shapes aid formability in a stamping press, particularly for the drawing process. Regardless of the blank shape, laser blanking allows engineers to tweak it for better forming.

This turned out to be an understatement. All these years later, the laser dominates precision sheet metal fabrication. It has blossomed in part because of its ability to cut any shape in any orientation. Nest layouts on a flat-bed laser in a high-product-mix, low-volume job shop resemble works of art.

Hunger said that having three laser cutting heads strikes a good balance. Having fewer heads slows the blanking speed, while having more heads leads to an excessive number of piercings, accelerations, and decelerations, simply because each laser head would be cutting only a small portion of the nest passing under it. And as part of a continuously fed sheet, the nest is truly “passing under” the laser.

For versatility, it’s hard to beat the Drill Doctor X2 with its dual-speed motor. In addition to the dedicated bit sharpening port, this sharpener includes separate guides for sharpening knives, scissors and other edged tools. To sharpen drill bits, insert the bit into the chuck, press it directly into the sharpening port and start sharpening!

The group, which included companies like DCT in Sterling Heights, Mich., and Alabama Laser Systems in Munford, Ala., along with laser experts such as Charles Caristan (now a technical fellow at Air Liquide), developed some initial concepts. A coil would be fed into a precision leveler, then into a laser cutting bed, after which robots or other devices would offload the cut parts and (when necessary) dispose of the skeleton. Since then advancing technology, including the high-brightness fiber laser, has made that concept a reality.

The term laser blanking isn’t new, but it can spur confusion, especially for those outside the automotive supply chain. It’s in no way related to “tailor-welded blanks,” sometimes called “laser-welded blanks,” in which different cut profiles are joined by laser welding to create a single blank that has properties tailored to the application.

The concept behind laser blanking in the U.S. goes back to the 1990s. Around the turn of the millennium, a multicompany consortium called Laser Blanking Central asked a question that, in retrospect, was ahead of its time: What if a blanking press could be replaced by a coil-fed laser cutting system?