Design a PCD shank tool
Set out a brazed PCD tipped shank tool tip by tip, see its bar and its disc nest from your own stock and read its cost and price.
Updated 11 November 2026
On this page
- Why
- A PCD tipped tool is priced by its tips, the discs they are cut from, the bar and the routed work.
- How
- Choose the tool type, set the dimensions and the tips, then read the checks, the nest and the price.
It opens in the workbench at /app/design/pcd-shank-tool.
Families
Tool type decides the tip layout and holds some values whatever you type.
| Tool type | What it is |
|---|---|
| Straight router | One row of tips with no shear. A long edge is built of several plates on each flute. |
| Shear router | One row of tips at the shear angle, cutting up or down. |
| Compression router | Cuts up at the bottom of the tool and down above it, so both faces of a panel stay clean. |
| Multi tip router | Short plates in two or more rows on a helical wing, staggered between flutes. The nesting router. |
| Profile cutter | One tip on each flute carries the whole form: straight, chamfer and v groove. |
| End mill | Rows as you set them, with a corner radius and plunge tips where the job needs them. |
| Drill | A router body with a point cone, straight flutes and point tips. |
| Reamer | Built as the drill is, with straight flutes and point tips. It carries no guide pads. |
Any type can carry plunge tips on the end face, chamfer tips on the end corner, a neck and an oversize on the cutting diameter.
What you set
| Group | What it holds | Values you set |
|---|---|---|
| Tool | The kind of tool and what it cuts. | Tool type; Hand; Cut direction; Up cut length lpos; Application |
| Dimensions | Cutting diameter; Oversize on cutting diameter; Shank diameter; Overall length; Cutting length NL; Neck diameter; 4 more | |
| Shank and bar | Shank form; Tolerance class; Shank clamping length; Body material; Carbide shank up to | |
| Tips | Every tip has its own size, grade and thickness. | Cutting rows; Cutting tip width; Cutting tip thickness; Cutting tip grade; Cutting tip shape; Tip taper; 12 more |
| Angles | Rake; Primary clearance; Secondary clearance; Shear | |
| Braze | Braze alloy; Braze foil thickness; Braze temperature; Braze gap | |
| Blank and cutting | How the tips are cut from the PCD blanks. | PCD layer needed; Tip overhang; Tip length over edge; Grind stock; Cutting method; Tip rotation in the blank |
| Quantity | Quantity |
- Application sets Rake, Primary clearance and Cutting tip grade. Choose it again and the three are set again.
- Body material left on Automatic makes the body carbide up to the diameter in Carbide shank up to and steel above it.
- Shank clamping length left at zero is worked out from the EN 847-2 minimum and the catalogue standard for the shank.
- The cutting, bottom and chamfer tips each have their own size, thickness and grade. The grades are grain classes, never a maker's grade name.
- A compression router shows Minimum depth of cut: the least depth of cut that leaves both faces clean.
What is checked
A value outside its range is refused. A block stops the price and every export until it is fixed. A warning changes nothing.
| Check | Result |
|---|---|
| A tip needs more PCD layer than any disc in stock carries | Block |
| A tip does not fit the disc inside the rim margin | Block |
| The length of cut is not shorter than the overall length | Block |
| No disc of the tip's grade and thickness is in stock | Warning |
| No bar in stock covers the turned envelope | Warning |
| The shank clamping length is under the EN 847-2 minimum | Warning |
| The braze temperature is above its window | Warning |
| The cutting diameter is far out of proportion to the shank | Warning |
| The tip overhang is outside its range | Warning |
| The shear is over the edge grinder class limit | Warning |
| Brazed tips on a very small cutting diameter, where makers use solid PCD | Warning |
How it is priced
| Price line | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Shank bar | The share of a bar the order uses, at the bar row cost. |
| PCD blanks | The discs the cutting tips are cut from, at the blank row cost. |
| PCD blanks, bottom tips | Extra discs for bottom tips, when they need a different blank. |
| PCD blanks, chamfer tips | Extra discs for chamfer tips, when they need a different blank. |
| Bar, turning, milling and shank grinding | The routed minutes of ops 10, 20, 30 and 80 at their rates. |
| Cutting the tips | Op 40 at its rate. |
| Fixturing, brazing and blasting | Ops 50, 60 and 70 at their rates. |
| Eroding or grinding the PCD edges | Op 90 at its rate. |
| Balancing, inspection and marking | Ops 100 and 110 at their rates. |
| Braze alloy | The braze grams of the order at the alloy price. |
| Braze flux | One charge of flux a tool. |
The lines are costs for the whole quantity. The price is their sum raised by your margin. Each operation's setup is counted once a batch, so the price each falls with quantity.
The rates this design module ships with are examples, not your prices. Set your own at /app/design/pcd-shank-tool/settings before you quote from it.
What it produces
- Customer drawing
- Nest DXF
- Cutting list
- Spec sheet
- STEP
Exports offers a customer drawing, a specification and quote PDF, a cutting list CSV, a DXF, an STL, a GLB and a STEP file.
The customer drawing is set out in Drawings and exports.
Material from your stock
- The bar is matched on the turned envelope and the cut length, never on the cutting diameter.
- A PCD blank is matched on the tip's grade, its exact thickness and a diamond layer of at least what the tip needs.
- The tips are nested on the discs you hold and each disc is charged by the share the nest uses. Disc nest shows the layout.
- A cost no stock row states is never counted as zero, so a design with no bar or no disc to draw on can come back with no price.
- An order carrying a shank tool line reserves its bars and discs. See Rates and counted stock.
How a stock row is matched is in Stock pools and matching.
From a wizard
The machining tool selector weighs a PCD tipped end mill against a solid carbide one on non ferrous work. Where the tool fits this design module, Design this one opens it here as an end mill with the wizard's values set.
What it does not make yet
The workbench and the specification sheet state its scope in these words: "This design module sets out a brazed PCD shank tool and prices making it: the shank bar, the PCD blanks, the braze and the routed work. It is for non ferrous metal, composite and abrasive board only, never steel. It holds no cutting data, because a speed, a feed or a tool life depends on the machine and the setup."
- A solid PCD, veined or full nib tool: only tips brazed into milled seats are built.
- A drill with helical flutes, a PCD wafer across the centre, step diameters or through coolant.
- A reamer with guide pads or a hole tolerance class.
- A drawn or DXF form on a shank, a radius or ogee form and a ball nose.
- A monobloc HSK tool, a heavy metal body and a carbide plunge tip.
- A maximum speed, a balance grade or a tolerance on the cutting diameter: the tolerance class is the shank's only.
- A cutter on a bore or a saw blade: those are the PCD profile cutter 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.
- The machining tool selectorTurn a machining job into the tool to use and the cutting data to run it at, then rank your own cutting tools against it.