Gallery, Projects and General > How do I??

Milling Dovetails

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Chuck in E. TN:
I have climb milled on my X2, with varied sucess. Usually, with tiny DOC, I get better finish.
I do not have a collant system, but for the dovetails, I will have a pump oil can at hand and apply liberal cutting oil.

Chuck in E. TN

Bogstandard:
Take Dave's advice about climb milling. I have a mini Bridgeport, and I avoid it like the plague, it causes more breakages and trouble than anything else if you don't have anti backlash lead screws.

If you take it steady with your cuts, not only will you end up with a great surface finish, your cutter will survive until another day as well.

If you go to the bottom part of the first post, I show in detail how I do my dovetails, and then a bit further down on the first page, the next post I do showing pictures, I show how I brought them to exact size.

http://madmodder.net/index.php?topic=2323.0

Use a bit of cutting oil in a squeezy bottle for when the going gets tough, don't use a lot, just enough to keep the cutting smooth.

Chuck in E. TN:
Thanks for chiming in, John. I always learn from your input. I lived in the UK for 8 years, and man, I wish it was down the street from you. I have learned a lot from you over the years, in spite of meself!

Chuck in E. TN

mgj:
I'd second or third the bit on feeds and speeds. I was supplied a dovetail cutter which seemed very spindly at the thin tips, and to have gone wombling in with that cutter at normal rates might have been unwise - don't know for sure because I never tried it.

For those who are determined to climb mill without the right backlash eliminators, you can nip up the table locks, just to prevent the table from being drawn in. OTOH to my way of thinking, on a lighter mill it might be better just to go slow and then lap the dovetails after cutting the normal way? (if necessary - which it may be because the final cut is quite long)

johnf345:
no-one seems to have mentioned that for a good dovetail all of the four touching surfaces must be "parallel".
Cut each side to nearly complete then do a last pass with the cutter at the same setting. On the female part
it is the side - slopy bit - and the top surfaces that touch. Cut both of the top surfaces with the
cutter at the same height.
On the male part the flat surfaces that touch can be cut at the same time with the same tool as
the slopy bits.

But there are other ways the touching surfaces can be defined but whichever they are cut them so they are all parallel.

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