A practical method to determine rake angles of twist drill by measuring the cutting edge

Rake angle and its distribution on the cutting edge of a twist drill are of vital importance to its performance. This paper presents a practical method to determine the cutting edge and rake angles. Firstly, 3D coordinates of the points on the cutting edge are inspected by using 2D measurement apparatus. Secondly, the flute profile is deduced from the data measured, and the rake angles are evaluated by numerical computation. Conventionally, rake angle calculation is based on a series of plane definitions and laborious work in plane projection is inevitable. To facilitate the process, a vector based procedure is presented. As an example, cutting edge of a standard drill is measured by using tool microscope and image-based instrument. In each case, the normal rake angle distribution is determined. Numerical results exhibit that average error and mean square error of the latter deviated from the former are 0.95o and 0.33o, respectively. It verifies the validity of the proposed procedure and the measurement device.