Author Topic: A junkyard lathe and mill tool grinder (Read 101297 times)

Arbalist · « **Reply #25 on:** September 17, 2013, 04:35:18 PM »

Nice job, good looking thread!

vtsteam · « **Reply #26 on:** September 17, 2013, 04:37:02 PM »

Today I thought I'd try a new experiment with this tag sale sander. First step was to blue up one of the slide pieces, and mark a line 1-1/2 degrees off square. I decided to do this using a little math since that's a pretty small angle to mark with a protractor.

The piece measured 2.10" long, and I wanted to know how far out to make a mark at one end to yield a 1-1/2 degree angle. I figured the tangent function would do it. With the pocket calculator TAN of 1.5 degrees x 2.1 = .055. So I needed to make a mark .055" in from one end, and then connect it to the other end. This is what it looked like:

vtsteam · « **Reply #27 on:** September 17, 2013, 04:45:31 PM »

Then I started filing to the line. I could have milled it, but I don't have a rotary table, and by the time I set up the mill and got that heavy vise over to 1-1/2 degrees, set the cutter height and did edge finding, etc.....well it was a lot quicker and easier to just file it to the line. I might have spent 5 minutes total -- and it was nice doing it outside in the sun on this unusually cool day.

vtsteam · « **Reply #28 on:** September 17, 2013, 04:53:36 PM »

I bought a barrel of aluminum scrap at an auction once, and there were a lot of one inch square bar cutoffs -- maybe from a screw machine room. I took one of the aluminum blocks and another strip of 1/8" by 1/2" steel, and positioned them to space the new strip an inch away from the one I just filed, and parallel with it. I clamped the steel strip down with a welder's clamp.

vtsteam · « **Reply #29 on:** September 17, 2013, 04:58:04 PM »

Then I removed the spacer block and spot welded the new strip in place:

vtsteam · « **Reply #30 on:** September 17, 2013, 05:03:47 PM »

Then I took three of the aluminum cutoffs and faced, drilled, and reamed 3/8", 1/2" and 3/4" to fit some end mills.

vtsteam · « **Reply #31 on:** September 17, 2013, 05:13:12 PM »

Checking out positioning, it turns out that for shorter mills the slide can be on the close side of the sander's table slot:

vtsteam · « **Reply #32 on:** September 17, 2013, 05:22:33 PM »

And for longer mills, I can turn the slide around so it is on the other side of the sander's table slot. The 1-1/2 degree relief angle stays in the same orientation, either way. The blocks can be rotated 90 degrees and replaced in their slide to sharpen each of 2 or 4 flutes.

Tomorrow I will work on a stop, a slide clamp and the adjustment method, and I hope, sharpen an end mill. I have a big box of used mills that someone gave me, so that would be kind of nice!

vtsteam · « **Reply #33 on:** September 17, 2013, 05:30:07 PM »

And finally for today, here's what it looks like with the lathe tool sharpening jig in place.

dsquire · « **Reply #34 on:** September 17, 2013, 07:35:26 PM »

Steve

That's pretty good looking. I can see that you are going to have a good supply of sharp bits to choose from. It appears to have worked out well for you without breaking the bank. Thanks for allowing us all to look over your shoulder while you work.

Cheers

Don

vtsteam · « **Reply #35 on:** September 17, 2013, 10:34:11 PM »

Thank you Don, and also Arbalist -- sorry I missed your post earlier.

borriss · « **Reply #36 on:** September 17, 2013, 11:13:12 PM »

vtsteam
You will have to tilt your table up or use the other side of the wheel in reverse to sharpen those milling cutters
Good idea you have come up with there,
Borriss

vtsteam · « **Reply #37 on:** September 18, 2013, 07:28:14 AM »

Well spotted Boriss. Yes the table tilts, and will be set to the proper angle(s) when it comes time to sharpen a test mill. I just left it at the angle I had used for the lathe tool when I took the photos. There's more to do before I try it out. Thanks for responding!

vtsteam · « **Reply #38 on:** January 04, 2018, 11:26:17 PM »

Restored photos after Photobucket links were broken.

SwarfnStuff · « **Reply #39 on:** January 05, 2018, 12:53:53 AM »

Vsteam,
Thanks for restoring the photo links for this project. 2013 and still relevant. Only problem I have is that it has added to my ever expanding "Things to make" list.
Supposed to be 41C here tomorrow so no playpen time for this little chappy unless I can sneak out for a bit early morning.
Regards,
John B

awemawson · « **Reply #40 on:** January 05, 2018, 02:49:55 AM »

Excellent Steve. Photobucket has a lot to answer for in wrecking tens of thousands of informative threads across many forums on the web.

I hope that they feel any gain to them outweighs the enormous loss of reputation I sincerely hope they suffer.

vtsteam · « **Reply #41 on:** January 05, 2018, 08:28:53 AM »

-16C here today and that will be the high, John, -27C Saturday predicted, so I can tell we're on opposite sides of the world, and neither of us in the shed!

Andrew, will restore all my threads in the evenings gradually. It's kinda fun to revisit old stuff, actually, for me. Gets me back interested in doing things in the shop -- had a lapse in interest for awhile.

krv3000 · « **Reply #42 on:** January 05, 2018, 04:13:49 PM »

a project well dun

SwarfnStuff · « **Reply #43 on:** January 05, 2018, 11:35:51 PM »

Well I did manage an hour or so, until the temp in the playpen got to 32C. In the house it was 27 so felt really good when I came in. The thermometer under the lemon tree said 43C a few minutes ago so I'm glad to be inside even if we did finally put the Air-Con on.

Amazing with all the new technology now, we know stuff all over the globe within an hour of it happening. Unlike when we were lads when the "news" would take days to make it down under.

I agree it is good to revisit some older posts and some of them seem new - cos I forget em.

So, you stay warm, I'll stay cool as the air-con keeps working.
John B

vtsteam · « **Reply #44 on:** January 07, 2018, 09:13:52 PM »

Thanks Bob, John!

nel2lar · « **Reply #45 on:** January 15, 2018, 08:14:02 PM »

Steve
I must say right on time. I have a nice belt/disc sander and the disc just sits there spinning because I use my pedestal grinder to do my tool grinding. But using the disc I can cut more precise settings much easier. Thanks for the update and show up on my radar. I'll be using your ideas to make it work for me.
Thank you Sir, by the way I like the way you think.
Nelson

vtsteam · « **Reply #46 on:** January 15, 2018, 10:25:47 PM »

You're welcome Nelson, glad it's helpful to you. I never did make an adjustable stop, as intended for mills, but maybe this winter.....

vtsteam · « **Reply #47 on:** May 09, 2022, 10:43:23 PM »

I actually never finished the end mill sharpening part of this project. Almost there, but lacked stops. I'm going to pick this back up as I have a big bunch of dull end mills in need of sharpening, and they are getting rather expensive to buy!

(Heh, it took me about 20 minutes of searching to find this old thread -- I couldn't remember what the title was, and searching on "belt sander" and "Delta" didn't work. Couldn't remember where I'd left things either. I do have all of the mechanical stuff, so on with the show...

RotarySMP · « **Reply #48 on:** May 10, 2022, 04:00:17 AM »

I think this is an excellent use of web necrophilia. I like it when old threads get resuscitated. Look forward to seeing your depth adjustment system.

vtsteam · « **Reply #49 on:** May 10, 2022, 08:31:16 PM »

Thanks RSMP.

I wanted to get a feel for how it worked before making the stop, just to see how well it functioned and in case I wanted to change anything.

Also I've been suffering with a bad 1/2" I need for a long slot in another project I'm working on. That mill was so bad that it screeched bloody murder when trying to take an initial .010" cut, and had the whole mill table jumping when trying to plunge at the start. The flutes didn't look that bad, but I think one of the corners was burred, couldn't quite tell with just glasses on and no magnifier.

So I decided that would be my first experimental victim, using no stop, just sharpening by feel and eye. Well that's not quite true since the angles are all set by the fixture, and really all I needed to do was decide how far to plunge the mill into the sanding disk. I decided to just touch it lightly, and repeated that for both sides. I could see that the grind was even. I think it took me at most a minute to plunk the mill into the holder, tighten the setscrew and grind both flutes.

It looked good, but would it cut? Did I have the angles right? Were the flutes even ectually?

Well, I don't know about the technical quality of that sharpening job, but I do know that mill plunged quietly to .040" into a slab of chewey hot rolled steel, and sliced out a 4-3/4" slot with no complaints whatsoever. It was an end mill transformed!

Hard to believe a junked and broken cheap sander could put a properly formed cutting edge on an end mill. I don't know what to call this thing, maybe the Antiquorn? Not to take anything away from the Quorn, and this is certainly less versatile, doesn't do the side flutes, and is by far less beautiful. BUT, it just provided me with a near lifetime supply of usable end mills (old ones given to me mostly).

I'm feeling stupid for letting this project lapse for 9 years without even once trying it out, while I bought end mills, some of which lasted minutes through an error by user. And for trying to get by with dull ones, taking .010" cuts, and suffering cramps from long hours trying to cut through reasonably thin materials. Milling projects that might otherwise taken a quarter or less of the time.

Well anyway, here we have the first slot being cut with a sharpened mill from the Antiquorn:

News:

Author Topic: A junkyard lathe and mill tool grinder (Read 101297 times)