Altered standard tools and made-to-print special cutters, engineered and ground in Saginaw, Michigan. If it can be machined with a rotary tool, Severance can provide the tool to do it.
Request a Quote Find a Distributor Special Tools Catalog (PDF)Severance Tool has made altered standards and made-to-print special cutters since it started grinding rotary files in 1931. Our engineering staff reviews every request and quotes a tool built for the part, the material and the machine.
Modified standards. Any standard Severance rotary tool can be customized: nonstandard tooth pitches or cuts, special shanks (extra long, threaded, flatted, oversize or undersize), and tools matched to a particular material or machine speed. Tools cataloged only in high-speed steel can usually be supplied in carbide or titanium nitride coated. Even flexible shafts for deburring surfaces that cannot be reached any other way have been built.
Special tooling. These tools produce a complex hole shape in a single pass and can incorporate as many steps, tapers, radii or contours as necessary. They are made in sizes from less than 1/8 inch in diameter to over four inches, usually in either steel or carbide, and may be reground many times.
Not sure a stock tool would fail? Check the rotary burr shapes guide or the specialty tools hub first. If nothing there fits, send us the print.
Each category below has special-order examples in the Severance catalog. Where a standard line exists, the link takes you to the stock sizes first.
Stock Midget Mills®, Junior Mills®, Lab Mills™, Carbo-Mills™ and Sever-Cuts™ with a different cut, tooth pitch, shank or flute length. Other tooth patterns are available as a special cut on request, including herringbone and straight teeth with chipbreakers.
Special shaped Midget Mills® in shapes, sizes and lengths of cut the catalog does not list. Special angles on the convex shapes may be obtained at a nominal extra charge. Special radius cutters are ground to form a customer part.
Fifty-four long shank Midget Mills® with a 1/4 inch shank 8 inches long are stocked, and special extra length Midget Mills® are made to order. Flex-Shank Midget Mills® handle inside, blind, winding and around-the-corner deburring.
Finning cutters were first designed to deburr the fins on aircraft motor heads during World War II. They are still used for stator and armature slots of electric motors and generators, and for deburring in confined areas.
A guide on the end keeps the mill from slipping out of the hole and marring the bearing surface, which is why the with-guide style is used to deburr oil holes in crankshafts. Guided outside chamfer mills have also been built.
Standard tube end chamfering mills cut 30 degrees on the ID and 45 degrees on the OD; other angles may be ordered as specials. Tube end forming cutters come in other sizes, shapes, forms and metric sizes as specials. Send a sample of your tubing, or at least the material specification.
Special angles, diameters, double angles, pilots and radii, plus tools that combine countersinks with drills, steps and pilots. Stop countersinks can be made with special flutes, angles, pilots, diameters and threads. See the countersinking aluminum guide for the adjustable countersink built for non-ferrous work.
Beyond the eight stock electrode dressers, Severance grinds specialty electrode cutter forms for spot weld electrodes in several styles, matched to the tip shape you run.
Special fish tail Carbo-Routs™ for drilling and contouring fiberglass composite. Carbide hand files custom made to specified sizes, shapes, cuts and mounting dimensions. Custom tool sets assembled for your application.
The special tools pages of Catalog 101 show tools built for individual customers. None is a stock item or carries an EDP number, so read this table as a guide to what is possible.
| Category | Catalog example | What it was built for |
|---|---|---|
| Long reach rotary file | Flex-Shank Midget Mill® | Hard to reach inside deburring where a rigid shank cannot follow the part. |
| Oversize rotary file | Extra large Midget Mill®, 4 inch diameter | Milling work far beyond the 1/4 inch shank range of the stock line. |
| Guided cutter | Outside chamfer mill with a guide | Putting a sharp angle on the end of a part such as a grounding rod. |
| Special cut | Herringbone cut deburring cutter | Deburring automotive universal joints. |
| Special countersink | Radius countersink | Rounding off the edge of a hole instead of cutting a straight chamfer. |
| Special countersink | Carbide metric Chatterless-Countersink™ with Morse taper shank | Metric work in a machine that takes a taper shank rather than a straight one. |
| Special countersink | Tough-Sink™ with three flats on the shank | Preventing the tool from spinning in a drill chuck. |
| Stop countersinks | Special flutes, angles, pilots, diameters and threads | Aircraft rivet-hole countersinking with hand-held power tools. |
| Reamer | Chatterless™ ball seat reamer | Steering gears, ball pin sockets, fuel injector plungers, valve push rod caps and molds. |
| Composite routing | Fish tail Carbo-Routs™ | Drilling and contouring in fiberglass composite. |
| Milling cutter | Pencil Mills | Milling teeth on oil and water rotary drilling bits (rock bits). |
| Aircraft tool | Rivet shaver | Removing old rivets from aircraft. |
| Medical tool | Stainless steel surgical burrs | Made for the medical industry; Severance also grinds teeth on customer hip rasps. |
| Hand file | Special hand and die files | Available in carbide, high-speed steel, diamond (DCF) or borazon (CBN). |
| Other forms | Hole saws, grooving tools, hollow mills, slotting cutters, disc cutters | Slotting, grooving, forming and cutoff jobs with no stock match. |
Examples taken from the Special Tools and Modified Standards pages of Severance Catalog 101. Special tools are considered special items and are not returnable for credit.
The quicker we can picture the tool and the part, the quicker the quote. Send as much of the following as you have:
Use the contact form and choose Custom or Special Tool as the subject, call 989-777-5500, or fax the print to 989-777-0602. Distributors can send a customer's special tool problem the same way.
Send a Custom Tool RequestOur engineering staff reviews the request for prompt analysis and a recommendation. If a modified standard will do the job at lower cost than a full special, we will say so. If a stock tool already exists, we will point you to a stocking distributor.
You receive a quotation for the tool as specified. Lead time depends on the tool, so delivery is quoted with the order.
Every special is made in the same Saginaw, Michigan plant as our catalog tools, in high-speed steel or in the tungsten-cobalt carbide grades sintered at the Severance plant.
Special tools may be reground many times. Send them to the regrind service with the drawing number; standard turnaround is 1 to 3 weeks.
The regrind department is staffed by the company's most experienced personnel, because restoring a tool is a more exacting task than making it. Each incoming tool is identified by brand, size, shape and catalog number, or by drawing number in the case of specials. Tools that arrive with no drawing go to inspection, where engineering prepares a print, calls the customer to settle any questions, and keeps the print on file. A special you bought elsewhere can still be resharpened here.
Regrinding typically saves up to 70 percent compared with buying new. Tools beyond repair are returned at no charge, and a quotation is provided before work begins if you request one.
Yes. Severance grinds altered standard and made-to-print rotary files in high-speed steel and carbide: nonstandard tooth pitches or cuts, special shanks (extra long, threaded, flatted, oversize or undersize), and special shapes, radii, tapers and flute lengths. Send a sketch or drawing with the material, quantity and application for a quotation.
Yes. Severance stocks 54 long shank Midget Mills® with a 1/4 inch shank that is 8 inches long, and makes extra length Midget Mills® and other long shank rotary tools to order for applications that need extended reach. Flex-shank Midget Mills® are also built for inside, blind, winding and around-the-corner deburring.
Yes. Special angles, diameters, double angles, pilots and radii can be quoted by the engineering department, along with tools that combine countersinks with drills, steps, pilots and radii, and stop countersinks with special flutes, angles, pilots, diameters and threads.
Minimum order quantities may apply for custom tooling, and each request is quoted individually. Special tools are considered special items and are not returnable for credit. Catalog items have no minimum order and ship through authorized distributors.
Yes. Special tools may be reground many times for extended service. The regrind department identifies specials by drawing number, and for tools that arrive without a drawing, engineering prepares a print and keeps it on file. Standard regrind turnaround is 1 to 3 weeks.
A sketch, the material, the quantity and a sentence about the job is enough to start.
Request a Custom Tool Quote Find a Distributor