Most of the suppliers are closed now that we are approaching the big days and I need a dovetail milling cutter soon.

I have given it some thought and think about making one with a carbide indexable tip. I am thinking of cutting an arbor and remove some metal of one side to place the tip. The tip is triangular with sharp points so a perfect 60 degrees can be done.

Any Ideas?

OK, I have done it. This was a trial and error job as it is my first milling job on my new mini mill. Previously I worked on my lathe alone.

I have used a bar of 25 mm dia. I have made use of a live centre to ensure it doesn't fly out of the chuck under speed.

I have cut a piece down to 16 mm as my stem and then I have used the abrasive cutt-off machine to shorten the piece.

I added the workpiece in the chuck and set the angle to cut at 30 degrees. In the background you can see an image of a previous job I worked on. Left, behind the chuck is my height setting jig (Magnetic).

Cutting Done.

Milling done on the previous attempt. I broke a twist drill when drilling the hole for the insert screw. The second drill driffted too far out, making the whole piece useless. Here you can see I used a bolt, but the second attempt I just used a straight piece of bar.

The insert is in. Perfect fit.

The available screw is too long.

A Dremel tool worked like a charm.

The end product. Similar dimentions than a 25 X 60 dovetail cutter. However a commercially available 25 X 60 mm cutter can cut dovetail 25 mm at its narrow measured point, 10 mm deep and of any length. This one however can cut up to 14 mm deep. Therfore bigger work is possible.

About 10% of the cost of a HSS cutter.

Now I am ready for Mr. Harold Hall's grinding rest and some serious additions to my limited number of QCTP holders.

Edited By Johan Crous on 10/01/2013 15:43:15