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Screw Head Polishing Tool

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Jere:
Hello all,

Finished a little project and thought I would share.  In the process of making various tiny screws, grinding and polishing the top surface can be a bit tricky.  I had first made a jig, called a 'frog' or 'bolt tool' (depending on the text).  It consists of a clamp with two rear leg-screws which are positioned level with the object to be polished in the clamp.  The difficulty lies in leveling these leg-screws for polishing something only a fraction of a millimeter thick. I could have made some improvements, for example a smaller screw pitch, but I decided on a better designed tool.  A source of information on the bolt tool can be found here (http://www.bhi.co.uk/aHints/frog.html)

Photo of the old tool:


In Henry Fried's book, "Bench Practices for the Watch and Clockmaker" he provides a diagram for a screw polishing tool which has three stationary legs, i.e. a tripod.  This omits the need to make the tool level for each use.  The object to be polished is held in a collet (8mm watchmaker's collets in this case), and an adjustment for height is provided.



I made a drawing and machined the components from brass plate and hex rod, drill rod, and 12L14 steel rod.  It consists of a tube to fit a collet with a nut to draw-tighten the collet.  This tube is keywayed and fit into a larger tube, which has a set-screw to mate with the keyway (this arrangement allows for the height adjustment).  I made the legs to fit into bushings which will allow small adjustments to be made to the tool to keep it level over time. 

For additional information, I detail the construction process on my website (http://watchmaking.weebly.com/screwhead-polisher.html).

The finished components:


The assembled tool:





Thanks for looking,
Jere

slowcoach:
What a lovely looking device, I will have to add that one to my long list of thing to make  :dremel:. Thanks for showing  :thumbup:

Rob

Brass_Machine:
Very nicely done!  :clap:

Love the build link.

how about some shots/video of it use? edit** saw it at the end of the page

Eric

raynerd:
Super Jere! Thanks for posting, enjoyed the read.
Chris

Dean W:
Such a nicely made tool.  A sure sign of the craftsman. 
Well done, Jere!

Dean

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