Shop made cheap-o tool grinder

[DICKEYBIRD]

In my post in the Tips & Tricks section, Bernd was curious about the grinder attachment I'm working on. It's a ways from being finished but far along enough to show the concept. I posted this over on HSM as well but thought some of you guys might be interested that don't visit there.

It all started with a chance encounter at H/F with a 4” cross-slide vise on sale for $29.99. Here it is http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=538 I couldn’t pass it up for that price, even knowing up front it was just a kit. I had to straighten up several surfaces in the mill and added bearings to the leadscrew/handles. I did a little crude lapping of the dovetails and gibs and it moves pretty smooth now and appears to be fairly tight with the gibs adjusted carefully.

The next component is the 5C endmill sharpening fixture available from CDCO and many other places. Seems to me to be a good value at $32.00 and should guarantee the proper angles being ground into the ends of medium size 2 and 4 flute HSS endmills. It just occurred to me that the diamond wheel could be installed and carbide endmills could be touched up as well. I drew it up in CAD so I could visualize what would be needed to offer an endmill up to the H/F Baldor grinder clone at the proper angle. 4 - 3/8” UNC holes were drilled/tapped in the fixture so it could be bolted solidly to the vertical plate. The steel it’s made from is pretty hard and it was tough going but I got ‘er done with HSS tooling.

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

I printed out the sideplate drawing on the shop inkjet and glued it to to 2 pieces of 3/16” plate, bolted together with 10-24 c/sunk allen screws. This was clamped on the mill table and the slots and holes were machined easily and accurately. Once the holes & slots were completed, I put 2 - ¼” bolts & nuts into the holes so I could cut out the outer shape & finish up on the disc sander. Machining them as a pair insured accuracy. I took the trouble to machine the slots so it could be adjusted in & out for different lengths of endmills.

Rough measurements showed that the combined cross-slide/5C fixture would be too low if it was just bolted down and needed a spacer to bring it up to the grinder centerline. Eureka…the Grizzly mill vise rotary base was perfect for a spacer and would allow it to be swiveled for most any unknown future grinding chores. I’ll have to machine a plate to bolt to the cross-slide base with a slot milled in to fit the centering dowel in the vise rotary base. This will allow rotary movement and some back & forth movement.

These pics are of the thing just mocked up and held in place by gravity so I still have a ways to go yet. I thought I’d post what I have accomplished so far to see what ya’ll think. It seems to be rigid & tight enough to be useful but that remains to be seen. I’m going to bend up some aluminum sheet covers for the exposed sliding surfaces and add a couple cheap dial indicators or digital calipers to accurately readout the movements. If the thing works OK, I may try to save up enough to get a CBN wheel instead of the soft A/O wheel.

I haven’t taken the time yet to work out how to gash the ends but hopefully, I can cobble up something.

 

[BobWarfield]

This is quite interesting, DB!

Do let us know how your first endmill sharpening jobs turn out. This has to be the easiest and simplest design I've seen yet.

Cheers,

BW

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

Thanks Bob. It is a simple device...so much so that I'm worried it won't work. ;D I guess I should've posted the drawings before beginning to cut metal in case someone shows me why it won't work. Oh well, I can always make some very accurate pointy sticks.

The other thing I'd like to try is swinging it around to 118 deg. to sharpen medium sized drill bits with the "4 facet" method.

 

[BobWarfield]

Assuming the surface grinder fixture "works", it's hard to see why this wouldn't.

BTW, better make up a little fixture to go on the XY table so you can surface grind small engine parts on your T&C grinder. I love the look of a ground finish if nothing else. You got room to do parts for a lot of small engines with that setup. Biggest issue is you may wish for a finer feed on your XY table.

Cheers,

BW

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

BTW, better make up a little fixture to go on the XY table so you can surface grind small engine parts on your T&C grinder.

Yup, that's another project. Not for the endmill sharpener but for my other recently acquired project: a very old Sioux valve refacing machine. A friend gave me this fine old machine after he got a new one. This one is in great shape and just needs a couple of new belts. I'm hoping to graft on one of those 3" 4-jaw chucks from CDCO and I can use it to finish grind little engine crankshaft crankpins and eccentrics.

Here's a 1939 (!) ad the nice customer service fellow at Snap-On/Sioux sent me last week. Not sure when my #621 was made...1940's I guess.

 

[Bernd]

Nice use of combining bought and home built components. I see your going to make it swivel also. Very ingenious. I'm sure it's going to work. If you hadn't told us that gravity is holding everything down I would have thought you were showing it in use already.

I'm looking into getting one of those HF grinders. I have a need for a tool grinder.

Bernd

 

[user 1618]

Hi All,

I have a quick question, As posted before The other half has offered to buy a mill for me. I have pretty much decided on the X3 after reading several of the posts on this forum.

The X3 seems to me to be a well rounded machine that also has a CNC conversion route already mapped if i so wish. now for the questions:-

ArccEuro Trade offer this mill in MT3 and R8, would i be correct in choosing R8, i currently have no existing tooling to hinder the choiuse.
next question for an additional £255 Arc will prepare the mill quote from site

ARC Preparation Service (Optional) : £255.00 (Add separately if required)
Highly recommended on the X3 machine - includes:
Strip, Clean, Re-assemble, Lubricate and Adjust
- about 2-3 days work for an experienced enginee

is this worth the additional cost?

kind regards