Home made tool & cutter grinder modifications

[DICKEYBIRD]

On my Stent, it is a square or square slide column, which can be raised or lowered but it is mounted on a calibrated rotary table.

Hmmm, more grease for those daydreamin' wheels.

[Fergus OMore]

Might I come back to my earlier comments- and perhaps re-phrase a few bits?

Doing lathe tools only involves a movement across each edge of just over twice the edge. Perhaps, it is only an inch or so.
Again, doing end mills and slot drills often involves less than an inch of movement. So it doesn't need anything exotic to do all this.
What is does need is the correct abrasive wheels and some motive power- which can be a simple 6" cheap Double ended grinder.

What IS important is the ability to hold the tool properly. If you have doddery old battered hands and an unsteady body, you do need firm and sensible rests so that no shake or rounding off of edges takes place. Even with this pretty gimcrack stuff, you should get edges which reflect your dirty finger nails.

You then get results-- BOOOOOOOTIFULL ones

[BillTodd]

Hmmm, more grease for those daydreamin' wheels

Yes I know what you mean 

I'm still thinking how to re-work my m/c fork-leg end-mill sharpener into something more flexible: 

so far I've collected a B&D valve grinder spindle (good solid thing too), a slide from a cross-saw , various motors & VFDs, a couple of quality ball-slides, miscellaneous acme & fast acting multi-start screws and a selection of heavy steel to make it it out of.

Just got to decide how to put it together

[DICKEYBIRD]

Well, isn't that clever!  Necessity's a muther, eh?

Seeing where you're from, surely that's a Norton or Triumph fork leg.

[Fergus OMore]

You have most of the ingredients. You also have a PM.

The 3 way vice is a good idea but you want the X slide to move more quickly. rack and pinion or as Derek Brooks did-

Again, you want a Quorn type tool holder. I sort that out for you on receipt of your reply.

Meantime

Cheers

[BillTodd]

Seeing where you're from, surely that's a Norton or Triumph fork leg.

I'm not sure but I think it's from a Honda ATV (three wheeler)

Bill

[DICKEYBIRD]

Seeing where you're from, surely that's a Norton or Triumph fork leg.

I'm not sure but I think it's from a Honda ATV (three wheeler)

Bill

Ahh, so that's why it's doing a 3 flute endmill!

[cfellows]

I've got this thing pretty well finished, except perhaps for some additional attachments.  Today, I made brass ball knobs for the x-axis spin handle.



I also added 5 & 10 degree graduations on the work holder...







And I reinstalled the belt drive on the y axis crank.  I had to move it to the right so it wouldn't interfere with the x-axis spin handle.



Tomorrow I plan to make video tour of the grinder, time permitting.

Chuck

[cfellows]

Here's the video of my Tool & Cutter Grinder. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6L8ZYrQm3U

Chuck

[bvd1940]

Sure would like to see how the tool holder head works for grinding milling cutters.

[BillTodd]

Good work Chuck 

[Rob.Wilson]

  Great job Chuck 

thanks for taking the time to do a video 

Rob

[Brass_Machine]

Very nice Chuck! A very useful bit of modding there~

 

Eric

[winklmj]

Very nice grinder. Good job putting it together.

[cfellows]

Thanks, all, for the kind words.  Here is a picture of my home made fixture for sharpening the flutes on end mills.



The spindle has just enough clearance so it floats on a cushion of air when hooked up to a low pressure air supply.   This makes it very easy to spin while moving in and out.  In it's current configuration it will handle cutters with a 1/2" shank on one end and 3/4" shanks on the other end.  I can also do other shank sizes by using bushings.  I'm going to try to adapt an er20 collet chuck to it so I don't need to use bushings.

Chuck

[Pete.]

That's neat! How much work did it take to get the air bearing working nicely Chuck?

[BillTodd]

Chuck,

Did you cut an annular groove internally to distribute the air and is the internal bore parallel?  (if it is I'd like to try my fork leg spindle)

Bill

[doubleboost]

Chuck
Just read your post and watched your video
If you need any blunt milling cutter to practice on I have a box full of them 
John

[cfellows]

Thanks, all, for the comments.

That's neat! How much work did it take to get the air bearing working nicely Chuck?

Thanks, Pete.  Yes, I spent a lot of time getting this thing to work.  I made the housing first.  As I recall, I line bored it to get a uniform bore.  I had to make several spindles before I came up with one that was parallel and worked.

Chuck,

Did you cut an annular groove internally to distribute the air and is the internal bore parallel?  (if it is I'd like to try my fork leg spindle)

Bill

Yes, I did cut an annular groove in the middle where the air inlet comes in.  Not sure what you mean by parallel...  It is uniform diameter for the full length if that's what you mean.

Chuck
Just read your post and watched your video
If you need any blunt milling cutter to practice on I have a box full of them 
John

Thanks, John.  I mostly use carbide end mills and have only used this fixture a handful of times. 

Chuck

[BillTodd]

Hi Chuck,

I've added an air input to my fork-leg end-mill holder.  While there is certainly a reduction in the friction,  it's not as much as I had hoped  - just gauging from the number of complete turns  it''ll do with a flick on the wrist say 2-3 dry and 4-5 under pressure - it is perhaps 50-80% better  (although it does feel that much better)

Interestingly, the best pressure range is quite narrow, between 1 and 3 PSI. This is a much lower pressure than I was expecting , as the pressure increases above 3 PSI the 'bearing' gets progressively stiffer.

 Any suggestions?

Bill

[Pete.]

Are you running that on the original sintered bush from the fork leg Bill?

[MadNick]

Good thread.

Im collecting the parts for my build at the moment.



Nick

[BillTodd]

Are you running that on the original sintered bush from the fork leg Bill?

No,  Honda run the chrome legs straight in the machined alloy outer tubes, so the bore is just straight except for my new annular air groove.

Bill

[cfellows]

I got my end mill flute grinding fixture hooked up to the air supply and have been practicing sharpening on a 3/4", 2 flute end mill.  The fixture will "float" the spindle at about 5 PSI and essentially becomes frictionless, except for the flute of the end mill riding on the small post which keeps it oriented withe grind stone.

I began thinking about a fixture that would easily let me grind the bottom cutting edges of the end mill and had visions of a fancy collet holder with indexing, etc., that would let me sharpen a tool at any angle, any rake, any number of flutes, etc.  But when I got to looking for suitable material, my practical side kicked in (some might say it was my lazy side  :-X) and I remembered this old, cheap Enco end mill sharpening jig I had bought years ago.  After some searching I managed to locate it and after some head scratching, here's what I came up with.







Here's a couple of pictures of the lash-up I used to drill the holes for attaching the new base to the old one.





And, here's a picture of it sitting on my T&C grinder, ready to go to work as soon as I bolt it to the T-slot in the table.



Not real fancy, but it will do the job until I get the urge and the time to make something better.

Chuck