Design a PCD profile cutter
Set out a PCD profile or jointing cutter on a bore, with its knife form, its knives and discs counted and its machined body priced.
Updated 11 November 2026
On this page
- Why
- A bore cutter is bought for one machine and priced by its knives, its eroded form and its body.
- How
- Set the body from the machine, choose or draw the knife form, then read the checks, the knife count and the price.
It opens in the workbench at /app/design/pcd-profile-cutter.
Families
This design module has one family: a profile or jointing cutter on a bore. What changes the tool is the form its knives carry, set under Form.
| Form | What it is |
|---|---|
| Straight jointing | A flat knife across the whole cutting width, for jointing. The form depth is not in play. |
| Chamfer | A chamfer at a fixed angle, sized by its depth. |
| Roundover | A roundover whose radius is the form depth. |
| V groove | A V across the middle of the width, sized by its depth. |
| Rebate | A step in the knife, sized by its depth. |
Any other form is your own outline: set Form definition to Draw the form in 2D or Import a DXF. Only the top edge of the outline is cut. It is fitted across the cutting width and an outline that doubles back on itself is trimmed.
What you set
| Group | What it holds | Values you set |
|---|---|---|
| Cutter and body | The cutting circle, width and hub of the machined body. | Material worked; Cutting circle; Cutting width; Hub width; Body steel; Rotation; 1 more |
| Knife form | The form the knives carry: a preset, a drawing or an imported DXF. | Form definition; Form; Form depth; Knife form; Resharpening area |
| Teeth and angles | Teeth; Shear angle; Hook angle | |
| PCD discs | The polycrystalline discs the knife blanks are wire cut from. | PCD disc; Usable disc diameter; Disc thickness; Diamond layer |
| Bore and mounting | Bore; Mounting | |
| Quantity | Quantity |
- PCD disc sets the usable diameter, the thickness and the diamond layer. Its last option lets you type the three. The disc thickness becomes the knife thickness.
- Material worked sets Feed per tooth: a starting feed for the record, which does not change the price.
- The knife rows are worked out, never set. A high shear is carried as several short knives in each flight: Knife rows per flight and Knives per cutter show how many.
- The form depth is limited to what the cutting circle and the bore allow. Form depth carried shows the depth the knife really carries.
- A keyway under Mounting is drawn in one size, whatever the bore.
The values the design module opens with are one reference cutter's. The circle, the width, the bore and the drive come from your machine.
What is checked
A block stops the price and every export until it is fixed. A warning changes nothing. Several limits say in their own message that they are examples for you to confirm.
| Check | Result |
|---|---|
| The bore is too large for the cutting circle to leave a workable body | Block |
| The hub is wider than the cutting width | Block |
| Too many teeth for the cutting circle to machine a seat and braze a knife | Block |
| The knife blank cannot be cut from the selected disc | Block |
| The knives would collide at this shear angle, width and tooth count | Block |
| The form is unusually deep for its width | Warning |
| A high shear angle, which is a special production setup with more knives and brazes | Warning |
| A formed knife split into several rows, so the profile is joined at every band | Warning |
| A hook angle steeper than the published figures for tooling of this class | Warning |
| A feed in solid wood above the published feed for this class of cutter | Warning |
Stock says when the form was limited, trimmed, fitted at a scale or split into rows. Each of those changes the tool, so read it before you quote.
How it is priced
| Price line | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Body billets | The cylindrical blank each body is machined from. |
| Body machining | Turning, boring, keyways and one seat per knife. |
| PCD discs | Discs consumed across the whole order, by geometric yield. |
| Brazing | One braze operation per knife. |
| Form erosion | The eroded knife edge, on every knife across the order. |
| Balance and inspect | |
| Setup |
The lines are for the whole quantity and the total takes a quantity break on a larger order. The knife count, the length of eroded edge and the number of discs move the price most.
The rates this design module ships with are examples, not your prices. Set your own at /app/design/pcd-profile-cutter/settings before you quote from it.
What it produces
- Knife form DXF
- Knife and disc schedule
- Spec sheet
- STEP
Exports offers a specification and quote PDF, a cutting list CSV, a DXF, an STL, a GLB and a STEP file.
Missing today: this design module has no customer drawing.
Material from your stock
- The body billet is matched on the steel and on the billet the body needs: the body's own envelope with a machining margin, never the cutting circle.
- The PCD disc is matched on exactly its usable diameter, its thickness and its layer.
- Where you hold no matching disc, the disc is priced from the design module's own disc rate and the cutting list says so.
- An order reserves nothing for this design module today: it reads your stock rows to price a design.
How a stock row is matched is in Stock pools and matching.
What it does not make yet
The workbench and the specification sheet state its scope in these words: "This design module sets out the cutter body, the knife form and the PCD tipping, and prices the manufacture: billet, machining, knives cut from discs, brazing and form erosion. It checks the geometry against manufacturing limits. It does not certify the cutter for a spindle's speed rating or approve the form for a feed and material combination: cutting trials stay with the application engineer."
- A jointing cutter with alternating shear: every row leans one way.
- A hogger or a shredder.
- A grooving cutter with side spurs or a rebating cutter with spurs or face edges.
- Exchangeable knives or a cutter head with inserts: the knives are brazed for good.
- An aluminium body, a hydro sleeve, HSK mounting or pin holes.
- A speed rating or a balance grade. Speed guide ceiling is a guide, never a maximum speed.
- A keyway in any size but the one it draws, a bore tolerance and a choice of tip grade: the disc is chosen by size, thickness and layer.
- A PCD tool on a shank or a saw blade: those are the PCD shank tool and the PCD saw blade.
Related
- The workbenchOpen a design module, configure a tool, keep it as a file and find its price, materials, checks and documents.
- The design modulesKnow which design modules are built today, what each sets out and produces and which product focus each serves.
- Stock matchingLoad the stock a design module is made from and read which item covers a configuration.
- Geometry and priceKnow what drives a design module's price from the shape of the tool and what does not.