Troubleshooting
Burrs on Your Parts: Causes and How to Cut Cleaner
Burrs mean secondary deburring, and that's lost money. They come from dull edges, gummy material, weak backing, and light feeds — here's how to cut clean the first time.
A burr is metal that got pushed instead of cut — so a clean edge is really a story about a sharp tool, a supported part, and a chip load heavy enough to shear. Burrs cost real money in secondary deburring, and most of them are avoidable at the spindle. Here's the cause-by-cause fix.
Burrs on parts — causes & fixes
Sharp shears, dull pushes
In non-ferrous work, edge sharpness is the single biggest lever on burr formation. A dull or over-honed edge plows material to the boundary and folds it over into a burr instead of cleanly shearing it off. RobbJack's polished, dead-sharp tools for aluminum and other non-ferrous materials cut clean — the same T-Process hone that strengthens edges in steel is exactly what you don't want here.
Support the exit edge
Burrs form where the cut exits unsupported material — the metal at the edge has nothing behind it, so it bends rather than breaks. A sacrificial backing plate or fixture that supports the exit side gives the edge something to cut against, and climb milling helps the chip thin toward the part edge. Pair that with a real chip load so the tool shears rather than rubs.
Run a sharp tool, support the exit edge with backing, feed to a real chip, and coat for gummy material — clean edges beat a deburring bench every time.
Tools in this story
Have a job like this?
Tell us your material and operation — our application engineers will recommend the tool and the speeds & feeds to run it.