Bazmak-Making the acute tool sharpening system

[bazmak]

Nice to hear someone else has made this.Yes I too did not like the screws and plastic bushes,so I deleted the plastic bushes and made the arms from brass
As I said I made the screws by machining cap heads down to make shouldered
studs/bolts.Still a pain in the butt but they look and work well.I made the collet for the ER16 chuck first,but have in mind to make a u block for clamping pieces of high speed steel,just like one side of the lathe 4 way toolpost.Could also make
a sg broached piece by fabricating in 2 and silver soldering back together
Early days yet.Also thinking of a V,ed block to set drills at the correct oriention for simple sharpening. Regards barry

 

[Stieglitz]

Hi Bazmak,
Was thinking about buying the kit,but instead I'll follow your build.
Allen.

 

[bazmak]

Hot weather has died down so more progress.Lots going on at themoment
and attacking on many fronts.For the eccentric system I made an ER16
collet chuck with 16mm spindle and 25mm sq head to fit the tool holder direct
Yet to try it out.I have been jumping about trying to come with a simple drill
grinding fixture.I did successfully sharpen my first drill but lots of niggles to iron out.I made a swing table with V groove at 30o and adjusting screw etc
The mounting brkt is not rigid enough and the posn is difficult to judge
to produce the correct back clearance on the swing so lots of trial and error
The swing is supposed to grind the drill in one movement,or locating the swing
in 2 posns to give me 2 facet grind.Will keep playing about and see where we get. Regards Barryhttp://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/u664/bazmak47/drill%20jig%2001_zpssfyrf2uo.jpg

 

[goldstar31]

Baz

Very interesting so far. I confess to having 'never got very far'. The trouble - or one of the troubles which I have encountered is having to try to get the drill reset for the second lip. Others might add their experiences- which might be of mutual assistance.

I've run into 'interchangeability' problems with my two Myfords. The spigot hole is different on the ML10 to the Super7B.
Again, the Standard 4 way tool post for the ML10 will not admit larger tools than 1/4" but these will not centre!

Indeed it IS the so called correct one. Damn and blast!

Regards

Norm

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Barry,

Unless my eyes deceive me, the drill angle with the drill lips horizontal and grinding with drill tail below the wheel centre will result in the rake going in the wrong direction. On the other hand if the drill lips are vertical, how are you ensuring that the drill lips are the same length ?

 

[BaronJ]

Morning Norman,

Part of the problem is that you are grinding on a curved surface. The angle changes as you move above or below the wheel centre line. This means that you have to be able to constrain the position of the drill in several directions at once. It is very much easier to use a flat surface and a fixed angle, then you only have to ensure that you can rotate the drill by 180 degrees accurately. Feed ceases to be a problem because once set for one lip the other is ground at the same setting.

 

[bazmak]

Yes,lots of problems to solve.With the drill on the angle shown the
lip is touched to the wheel and swung up to grind the relief therefore the drill lip must be slightly lower than centreline of the wheel.The drill is then turned thru 180o to grind the other lip.With the drill located by the adjusting screw the 2 lips can be ground equally.I have also made the hinged table reversible so the 30o approach angle can be reversed and the drill ground on the downswing.Tricky buts keeps me occupied.Now I have the eccentric and the collet chuck I may try some endmills

 

[b4dyc]

The ER16 system looks a good idea. Why didn't I do that instead of making all the holders
I suppose for us, half the fun is in the making and the other half in the using.
When I ground my first few end mills I couldnt help think to myself that it was all worth while. I would put up with poor finishes and slow cutting rates rather than buy more cutters.
As for drill sharpening, If you want to look at the drill grinding rest that I made, it can be seen on youtube here ==> [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GWCS-qLYnw[/ame]

Plans and extra pictures are linked to a drop box account for downloading.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GWCS-qLYnw"][/ame]

 

[bazmak]

Well I have tried my system and not very impressed.Will now try the acute system and the er16 collet to grind a drill.Chose an old 10mm (the largest size the collet will hold).With this larger size of drill I found it easier to hand grind
the back relief/secondary facet as I remember the old timers teaching me as a lad.Still fairly simple on this size of drill.I then set the eccentric system after
nudging a few n
minor niggles.I had to turn some relief on the collet nut.
I was pleasantly surprised the drill looked reasonable and cut really well
Will now work down in sizes and adjust the method t o suit as we go

 

[bazmak]

I decided to sharpen a couple of end mills using the cup wheel
First thing was to redrill and reposition the table towards the front of the grinder
After a little messing about I came to the following conclusions
The acute system using the ER16 collet works well with sizes up to 10dia
With a holder for 12 dia and a collar for 16dia mounting direct it also works well
For 20 dia endmills I have to use my system with the ER32 collet block
The er32 collet block also works well down to 12 dia so using the 2 systems I can grind any size up 20mm dia
With this in mind I sharpened 2 x 20dia end mills both 2 and 4 flute so far I
am happy,its fiddly and tricky but should become easier with use.Next will go thru all my HSS endmills and try a regrind on badly chipped/worn ones.First I have to make the holder for 12dia and the sq collar for the 16 Also need to set up my small set
diamond discs to gash the centre out of the centre of each end mill dia

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Barry,

Looking good. Nice edges on that slot drill. Its the flutes that are hard to do

 

[bazmak]

thanks Baron,no intension of doing flutes just trying to get more life from my cutters.I have a cheap set of 2 and 4 flute endmills next step is to try to grind all of them.Getting there

 

[goldstar31]

Ah! Flutes-- and spiral ones at that!

Years ago, someone gave me a taper turning attachment apparently specific for grinding flutes and such things as Morse taper shanks and sic blether. It was rusty then - and more rusty now.

I've looked at it several times and thought that the 1" round steel would come in handy.

Don't get me wrong, I possibly have most of the necessary gadgets on my Clarkson but getting a gift of an air spindle is too much to expect-- and rather difficult to make- on home workshop equipment.

Probably a wallet spanner would be a more worthwhile acquisition :hDe:

Norm

 

[Blogwitch]

The main problem with grinding the flutes on any cutting tool is that you usually end up with a non standard cutter.

OK if you want a special sized reamer (D-bits can do that job) or milling cutter, but other than that, they are as much use as a lead balloon, they require a lot of extra calculations and measuring (and getting them re-marked up) if you are going to use them.

Better to do as Baz is doing, just extending the life of normal cutters.

I had to look at that way of doing things before I purchased my small 12" cube dedicated milling cutter sharpener instead of a large T&G grinder with all it's complicated setup tools, I decided it just wasn't worth the extra effort to grind flutes of milling cutters.

As Norm said, a wallet spanner sorted mine out.


John

 

[bazmak]

I made a 25mm sq collar for the 16dia cutters
A 25 sq toolholder for 12mm cutters
The er16 collet holder does 1mm to 10mm
and the er32 collet holder does 20mm max down
Ready to start a sharpening production line but it might have to wait awhile
as I am expecting my DRO delivery and that will take priority.see my thread

 

[goldstar31]

As a younger and uncouth generation would say 'Very Tasty'

My progress has been marred- yet again. I fixed the 4 way ML10 turret onto the lathe only to find that it wouldn't accept anything more than about 6mm. It was a full 1/8th 'out' and if I was to get it to fit, I had to machine it down-- but there was a spring peg for the ratchet in the way. Fished out my never used OEM turret on the Super 7 and guess what- it was the same .

Given time( ?) I might get the Acute thing built

Merde

 

[bazmak]

When I first bought the mill I bought a cheap boxed set of HSS end mill
containing 5 each of 2 and 4 flute end mills.With little use on mild steel
they quickly lost there edge or chipped.They worked well in alum,brass and CI
so I kept them in reserve and when cutting mild steel I used carbide to rough out with a light final cut to square out the corners.This exercise is to try and refurb as many as I can
I bought a cheap set of small diamond Dremel style wheels and set up in the lathe to grind the centre relief by hand and eye.Works well on the small end mills but too thin for the larger ones
Using the eccentric and my systems I proceeded to grind all sizes.Partial success.The 6mm 4 flute were unsuccessful due to my poor eyesight and the fact that they were well worn.The 2 flute was partial successful
It became easier as the endmill size increased.Where possible I will now buy
larger 2 flute carbide slotcutters/endmills and accept the 6mm and smaller as throwaway.I will limit the use of larger HSS for special occations etc and use mainly 2 flute.The eccentric system is now finished and works OK with a couple of extra tool holders to be made as required

 

[Stieglitz]

Hi Bazmak, Great job thanks for sharing.
Allen.

 

[stragenmitsuko]

Nice work and it was great to see the system evolve .
Thx for sharing indeed .
Pat

 

[goldstar31]

Hi Baz( et al)

I've been looking for resin- resin. Old fashioned stuff to stick on abrasive discs. Eventually found a local branch- where earlier bought a CBN wheel. There is a lecture on tool grinding but I'm destined for the dentists chair.

So in a roundabout way, the tool firm is selling stuff from a firm called Veritas. Oddly, they have a tool rest and grinding jig 600321 which is the basis( or so it seems) of the Acute grinding system. Veritas is international with outlets in Oz amongst other places.

Nope, the firm here is out of stock but thought you( and others) might be interested!

Regards

Norm