My Tool Grinder.

[BaronJ]

Hi All,
I've now got all the gears slotted and keyways done. Apart from the lubrication considerations all I need to do now is put everything back together.

The photographs show the gears and the assembly as it would be inside the head casting.

 

[goldstar31]

Why, why, Oh Why my, my battle stained weary champion?

I recall the late George Thomas who had bright, shiny and unoiled gear teeth. Or so he said:hDe:
What is needed is lubricating grease on the bearings but if you think about carefully, the grease in your car's wheel bearings has been in place- unchanged, forgotten and ignored--- and is still doing rather well.

My lubricating oil has been pumping about =sheeesh= for nearly 8 and a half-decades. It's thin, gets cold and all that sort of thing but you get the idea.

I was having a bit of a giggle with a bloke from what was the generating board- a million years ago. The oil in the turbines had been in since Joseph Swan made his first light bulb:wall:

Concentrate on YOUR lubricating system.

Meantime,
cheers from a moonbeam from the Lesser Lunacy.

 

[BaronJ]

Thank you Norman for those kind words of wisdom.

I shall try my best. I promise.

 

[BaronJ]

Well I got everything put back together ! It runs nicely. The repetitive chugging has gone. It doesn't sound any more noisy than it did before but then again there isn't any load on the motor.

Back to doing what I was doing before the problems began.

Thanks to all for the good advice.

 

[Griffin]

Baron

Not tried any metal gears yet, just concentrating on getting it right with the plastic, I think acetal is the stuff I'm going after or delrin if that works?, certainly not making any more out of polypropylene , hell they make supermarket bags out of it, only tried it as an experiment but it was still whizzing round today, still don't believe that?

The reason I'm doing this is I need the gear train for cutting a 10 TPI thread bar for the cross slide and compound slide, when I get round to making it, on a metric machine, and these gears give me an accuracy of
0.0000787 in :wall:Hell I can't even say that in words :fan:anyway I think its near enough, lol

After that I want to get into making an epicyclic gear train to fit on the lathe motor for some proper gear reduction, have very limited space you see

 

[robcas631]

Baron,

I like how you used the Aluminum gears as cushions on your chuck.

 

[robcas631]

Norman,

Good idea. I have been reluctant to add any type of cushion because it might set my work off center.

 

[goldstar31]

Norman,

Good idea. I have been reluctant to add any type of cushion because it might set my work off center.

Glad to help. I'm a bit fed up. There are more pressing matters in our lives.
I'm more or less taking a break until October. Perhaps 'Spending our Children's Inheritance ' summarises it.

I bid you both well.

Norman

 

[BaronJ]

Baron,

I like how you used the Aluminum gears as cushions on your chuck.

Hi Rob,

They were just slices parted off from a 150 mm long aluminium gear used to drive a cogged belt. It turned out to be just the right size to make those soft jaws. If you ever need to turn something accurately concentric then that is one way to do it. Even an old and badly worn chuck can produce very close work using soft jaws.

 

[bazmak]

Just read this thread with great interest,along with tramming the head,its
the reasons i bought a fixed column mill with belt drive.I also like the soft jaw idea.Also a thought.is that Myford use 2 tufnol gears for the tumbler reverse
to act as sacrificial gear and for reducing noise.Expensive,so i feel that the the
nylon key is the best answer or alum? Regards barry

 

[gus]

Hi Guys,

Been thinking about salvaging the cheapy umpteen M.I.C. end mills to mill aluminium.
While milling the cams out of Sliver Steel, two MIC end mills went dulled. Had to buy Tungsten Carbide End Mills. I have a domestic sewing machine motor. Please advise is this adequate.

 

[DJP]

Any small motor should work as long as you can get the cup wheel RPM high enough. I found a small motor running at 3500 rpm and it works just fine to sharpen end mills. Two flutes are easy but 4 four flutes tricky as you still need to relieve the centre portion of the end mill on a standard grinder.

My philosophy is that any sharpening is better than no sharpening. The flutes don't need to be perfect and matched for the cutter to work just fine. At least for my level of machining, this approach works.

 

[bazmak]

I have also been thinking of a simple tool grinder for end mills etc
Anything must be better than by hand.My thoughts are to hold the cup wheel
in a mandrel in a collet on the lathe,i know the pitfallss???
Avoid dry grinding dust on the lathe.Adequate protection on the ways
Is 2500rpm fast enough for light cuts
Any thoughts on tool holding and setting compound angles
Still thinking.Diamond wheel or white carborundrem for HSS ?? Regards barry

 

[Swifty]

Hi Barry, definitely carborundum for HSS. Diamond wheels should only be used on carbide.

Paul.

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Guys,

I used a universal motor and a speed controller for mine. A five inch (125 mm) diameter wheel needs around 3000 rpm whilst a 2 inch (50 mm) diameter wheel needs nearer 5000 rpm. Its getting the surface speed up so that the wheel does't load up with removed material.

Of course since a universal motor often runs at very much higher speeds than is needed or safe for any particular wheel some form of speed control is required. The motor that I used came from an old rotary lawn mower and off load easily hits 20K rpm. Its also 1.5 Hp so its way overkill for the job.

A two pole induction motor on 50 Hz will run at 2850 rpm so using a belt and pulley drive will allow for speed control. A larger pulley on the motor will allow the wheel spindle to be made so that it has a higher speed.

Since you are not removing large amounts of material the motor doesn't need to be very powerful so, Gus, your sewing machine motor might be just fine.

I agree with Paul, I wouldn't use a diamond wheel on HSS although you could !
They are more useful for carbide tipped tools and inserts.

HTH.

 

[DJP]

Here is my simple end mill sharpener.

 

[gus]

Hi DJP,

Please advise wheel type,O.D.,speed and motor HP. I am eyeing at DIY Tool Post Grinder type to touch up those umpteem M.I.C. end mills collected since 2004. Even though I have switched over to Taiwanese,Japanese and Indian end mills, the day will come for regrinding.

 

[DJP]

The motor says 100 watts on the label and it runs at 3450 rpm. A 20 uf capacitor is required to start it. I found it at a surplus store called Princess Auto in Canada for $10. The grinding wheel is the cup type that can be sharpened to a fine edge which you need for clearance when grinding 4 flute end mills. They were used so only about 2 or 3 inches in diameter. They are rated at 3800 rpm. A buddy gave them to me but I'm sure that they can be sourced at an industrial supply company like KBC tools. The only machining required was to build an aluminium mandrel for the stone that fit the motor shaft and the grinding wheel diameter. The motor shaft had a threaded section for a retaining nut.

The end mill holder is set at 12 degrees so nothing fancy when sharpening for various metals is possible. This hasn't been a problem for me. The other end of the milling cutter holder has a diamond bit that I use to reshape the stone cup wheel. Both the end mill cutting and diamond dressing follow the straight edge fence mounted just in front of the motor.

I built this set up as a prototype but it worked so well that after sharpening all of my collection of dull cutters I decided that it was good enough for the volume of sharpening that I need.

 

[gus]

The motor says 100 watts on the label and it runs at 3450 rpm. A 20 uf capacitor is required to start it. I found it at a surplus store called Princess Auto in Canada for $10. The grinding wheel is the cup type that can be sharpened to a fine edge which you need for clearance when grinding 4 flute end mills. They were used so only about 2 or 3 inches in diameter. They are rated at 3800 rpm. A buddy gave them to me but I'm sure that they can be sourced at an industrial supply company like KBC tools. The only machining required was to build an aluminium mandrel for the stone that fit the motor shaft and the grinding wheel diameter. The motor shaft had a threaded section for a retaining nut.

The end mill holder is set at 12 degrees so nothing fancy when sharpening for various metals is possible. This hasn't been a problem for me. The other end of the milling cutter holder has a diamond bit that I use to reshape the stone cup wheel. Both the end mill cutting and diamond dressing follow the straight edge fence mounted just in front of the motor.

I built this set up as a prototype but it worked so well that after sharpening all of my collection of dull cutters I decided that it was good enough for the volume of sharpening that I need.

Hi DJP

Thanks for the info. My surplus sewing machine motor is rated 120 watts.
Plan to DIY a Tool Post Grinder cum End Mill Grinder.
Been busy making DIY Timber Casing to hold Mikes and Vernier Calipers etc.

 

[gus]

Hi DJP,

Please advise vender for the cup wheels.