Turning down the shank of dovetail cutter

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wongster:
Andy,

Thanks!!! You have uncovered a gem for me! I just shifted to my new office which is about 15 mins to 20 mins walk from Rowell Road. Hope they entertain small purchases. I'll give them a call tomorrow. Mist of the shops there closed around 5 to 6pm.

Not many folks here have machining as a hobby. Steve Wan of another forum, a fellow Singaporean, has been searching for hobbyists in this. Hope to have our own support group.

Really appreciate your help. Appreciate if you could thank Mr Rymell on my behalf.

Regards,
Wong

wongster:

--- Quote from: Dean W on July 19, 2010, 02:04:38 AM ---For a piece of wood or plastic, I meant that in case you can't rig up some kind of dog driver like the pics above.
You would need a thin piece of wood with a hole in the center, and about twice the size of the end of the dovetail
cutter. Plastic would do, too. It would need to be soft plastic, or rubber. Something the cutting edges of the cutter
could bite into when you pressed it against the face plate. The dead center has to go through the hole to meet the
center hole in the cutter. I think you would do better to make up a small dog out of aluminum. It could just be made
from scrap.

Considering how narrow the dovetail is that you're cutting, you would do better with a smaller cutter, if you can find one.
It's going to barely fit your work piece on the size you got, and that means cutting both sides of the dovetail at once.

Dean

--- End quote ---

Hi Dean,

Thanks for the pics. The aluminum dog looks like a possibility for my current skill (or lack of it). Even if I finally end up buying a smaller cutter, it solves the question I always have in my mind about turning something down with odd looking ends. I may still try to turn it down to get a feel of how it works.

I aim to clear all my work and meetings as early as I can tomorrow so that I can run down to the shop mentioned by Trevor Rymell in Andy's post. Hope they have it in store.

Regards,
Wong

wongster:
Just called the shop. All their dovetails have 12mm shank. Looks like I either wait for my shipment or to try turning down using the alu dog suggested by Dean. Ordering the arbor from A2Z will also take some time... Anyone has a private jet to lend me free of charge. Best with pilot and serving crew. I can be like the Macau's Stanley Ho, who get his staff to fly in here to get some special durians. Durians are not allowed on commercial flight.

But the shop is still a good future source for tooling.

Regards,
Wong

wongster:
I couldn't stop myself. Couldn't wait for the shipment of the dovetail cutter which is of the right size. I went over to the shop 2 days ago and purchase the Dormer dovetail cutter. Expensive stuff but I just have to get something. While I was there, I also bought a countersink cutter.

The dovetail cutter has shank of 12mm. There are 2 small holes at each end that I can mount between centers. I waited patiently till tonight (Friday night) for turn down the shank but I was disappointed. I'm able to use the dog and surface plate that came with my sherline lathe but I'm not able to move my right hand tool to the end of the shank at tailstock end. The tailstock spindle was turned to the max. Some pics attached to show what I mean.

Appreciate any advice.

Thanks.
Wong

andyf:
Well, one of the advantages of turning between centres is that you can turn one end of he work, then reverse it and turn the other, and things will stay concentric.

Sometimes it works, even for me ::)
Andy

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