Carbide Burrs by Application

Use an aluminium cut burr. Aluminium, brass, copper and most plastics are soft enough to weld themselves into the flutes of a standard single or double cut burr, and once the gullets pack the tool stops cutting and starts rubbing — you get heat, smearing and a ruined surface rather than swarf. Aluminium cut has fewer, deeper flutes with much wider spacing so the chip clears itself. Protool stocks aluminium cut in Types A, B, C, D, F and L from 6mm to 16mm head diameter. If you need a shape we do not stock in aluminium cut — oval, tree, flame, countersink, cone or inverted cone — single cut is the closer substitute, because its wider tooth spacing clogs less readily than double cut, but expect to clear the flutes more often.

It is the flute geometry, and it changes how the burr behaves rather than what it is made from — all three are the same tungsten carbide. Single cut has one set of helical flutes with widely spaced teeth, so each tooth takes a heavier bite: material comes off fast, the finish is coarser and the chips come off long and stringy. Double cut adds a second set of flutes crossed over the first, which breaks those chips into small pieces. That makes the tool far less likely to grab in a hand-held grinder, gives you more control and leaves a finer finish, which is why double cut is the usual choice for hand deburring on steel and stainless. Aluminium cut is a specialist form with fewer, deeper and more open gullets, made to stop soft gummy swarf from packing in. Choose single cut for speed, double cut for finish and control, aluminium cut for non-ferrous.

Work back from the feature you are cutting. For a hole entry chamfer, use a countersink form — Type K for a 90° included angle, Type J for a narrower one. For a burr on the back face of a hole or a cross-hole intersection, use an inverted cone (Type N), which cuts as you draw it back out. To open out or straighten a hole or slot, use a cylinder: Type A cuts only on the flank, Type B has end teeth and can plunge. To blend a radius or a curved face, use a ball (Type D), oval (Type E), ball nose cylinder (Type C) or ball nose cone (Type L). To reach into a corner or a tight profile, use a pointed tree (Type G), ball nose tree (Type F), flame (Type H) or cone (Type M). Protool stocks all thirteen shapes, Types A through N — there is no Type I in the standard series.

Two: 3mm and 6mm. The 3mm shank carries the 3mm and 4mm heads and is 38mm overall, which suits a pencil grinder or a micro die grinder for small bores and tight internal corners. The 6mm shank carries the 6, 8, 10, 12 and 16mm heads and runs from 50mm to 81mm overall depending on how long the head is. 6mm is the standard collet size on most workshop die grinders in the UK, so it covers the majority of jobs. If your grinder takes 1/4in (6.35mm) collets, a 6mm burr will not run true in it — check the collet size rather than assuming, because the two are close enough to look interchangeable and are not.

Use an inverted cone burr (Type N). It is narrow at the shank end and wide at the tip, so you pass it through the hole, tip it against the far face and cut on the withdrawal stroke. That reaches a back-face burr that no hand scraper will get to. The same geometry works for the intersection where a cross hole breaks into a bore, which is one of the hardest burrs to remove in a machined part — the flat top face of the cone lets you clean the intersection square rather than rolling the edge over into the bore. Protool stocks Type N in single and double cut, 3mm to 16mm head. For heavier access through a small hole, a 3mm head on a 3mm shank will pass through a hole a 6mm head will not.

You can, but it will not work well and it wears the tool quickly. Carbide burrs are designed to run at die grinder speeds — tens of thousands of rpm — where the cutting edge shears the material cleanly. A mains or cordless drill tops out an order of magnitude lower, so the teeth rub and chip instead of cutting, the burr loads up, and you push harder to compensate, which is how burrs get snapped. A drill chuck also holds a 6mm shank far less concentrically than a collet, so the head runs out and chatters. If a drill is genuinely all you have, take very light passes, keep the burr moving and expect a short tool life. For occasional hand deburring on drilled holes, a hand deburring tool or a countersink is the better answer.

No — Vortex carbide burrs are stocked and sold individually, not in boxed sets. In practice that works out better for a working shop: sets are priced around a spread of shapes you may never touch, and when you wear out the one shape you actually use you are buying the whole set again. Buying singles means you can stock two or three of the shape and cut you use every week and replace exactly that. If you want a starting spread for a general workshop, a 6mm double cut ball (Type D), a 6mm double cut cylinder with end cut (Type B) and a 10mm single cut 90° countersink (Type K) will cover most day-to-day deburring. All items are held in UK stock.