[QuinnSjoblom]

I'm gonna be using mostly carbide inserted stuff in my mill turn, but I need a few odd little grooving tools and things that need to be dimensionally accurate and I would prefer to not spend hundreds for a handful of special tools that will see very little use.
Does anyone grind special hss tools in their cnc? I picture this working by holding the blank vertically in the vice, tipped to the side at the relief angle needed. All geometry should be possible with a small cylindrical grinding tool. I have no experience grinding hss so im not sure if its important that you're always grinding in one direction, from the face of the tool to the back. In this case, with the example of a grooving tool, it would grind in opposite directions on either side of the grooving tool. Not sure if that's a problem or not.
Just to be clear, I'm talking very small tools, like a 1/4 hss blank and grinding maybe a 2mm grooving tool for example

[Jim Dawson]

I normally hand grind special lathe tools. To really get accurate a surface grinder works well. Never tried to do it on a CNC mill, but I guess it could be done if you wanted to hang a grinding wheel on the spindle, but this would not be my first choice. I like to avoid throwing sparks around machine tools. Step over would have to be very small.

You can grind in both directions.

Grooving inserts are inexpensive also.

[QuinnSjoblom]

I normally hand grind special lathe tools. To really get accurate a surface grinder works well. Never tried to do it on a CNC mill, but I guess it could be done if you wanted to hang a grinding wheel on the spindle, but this would not be my first choice. I like to avoid throwing sparks around machine tools. Step over would have to be very small.

You can grind in both directions.

Grooving inserts are inexpensive also.

Yeah that is one concern I have, grinding dust on my linear rails. As for grooving inserts, I assumed each size would be specific to it's own tool. The inserted parting/grooving tool I have holds a 2.5mm square end insert and I assumed that's all it holds, maybe it holds others? I need a few pretty small od grooving tools. Like a 1.5mm square, 1mm bullnose, maybe 2.5mm bullnose, couple other things. Ill look a bit further into grooving inserts.

[Jim Dawson]

Yeah that is one concern I have, grinding dust on my linear rails. As for grooving inserts, I assumed each size would be specific to it's own tool. The inserted parting/grooving tool I have holds a 2.5mm square end insert and I assumed that's all it holds, maybe it holds others? I need a few pretty small od grooving tools. Like a 1.5mm square, 1mm bullnose, maybe 2.5mm bullnose, couple other things. Ill look a bit further into grooving inserts.

One holder will handle many sizes. There is a difference between a parting and grooving tool.