Simple Conversion of a Unimat SL to sharpen milling cutters

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Simple Conversion of a Unimat SL to sharpen milling cutters

Home Forums Workshop Tools and Tooling Simple Conversion of a Unimat SL to sharpen milling cutters

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  • #126279
    Doddy
    Participant
      @doddy

      So the bottom draw in the workshop has a few milling cutters which are a bit dull and have lost their edge. Always wanted a ToolCutter Grinder and one day I'm sure I'll make a Quorn, Stent, Worden or go and buy one. Up until now I've always though about the cost of a Tool Cutter Grinder Vs the price of a new cutter. Looking at the growing pile of blunt and chipped cutters there are a few that only require the edge "touching up" so heres my solution, yes it needs a guard and few other mods but I just made it to see if the results were OK. The only real problem is I can only sharpen the ends of Slot drills and End mills and not the sides and the diamond disk is turning down across the cutting edge rather than away from the cutting edge, but it hardly leaves a burr block1 resized.jpgthe block milled with a 6degree and 8degree angle and two mounting holes square to theses facesblock2 resized.jpgsquared up an off cut of angle iron a mounted it central to the 3mm deep slotblockscrews resized.jpgadded a stop screw and clamping bolt12mmcarrier resized.jpgmachined a carrier stub with 12mm x 1mm pitch threadmc12mm resized.jpgscrewed to Unimat SL nose and machined in-situ to take the Diamond Grinding Wheeldisc resized.jpgDiamond wheel runs true as stub cut in postiondiscutter resized.jpgMade a Riser Block to fit under the headstock of the lathe – this has to be 20mm thick so the Unimat Headstock clamp worksaligncutter resized.jpgMilling cutter aligned horizontal with vernier on surface plate so as each cutting edge is sharpened in turn the are square and the stop screw ensures correct depth of cutunimattoolcutter resized.jpgsmall light cuts feeding the cross slide. E25 Collet Block ensures correct alignmentsharpcutter resized.jpg

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      #17133
      Doddy
      Participant
        @doddy
        #126289
        Thor 🇳🇴
        Participant
          @thor

          Seems to be simple to make. I have made a cutter holder with a MT 2 spindle, and mounted it on a small X-Y table. The Unimat is used to grind the cutting edges, I use an ordinary aluminiumoxide wheel though. From your pictures it should be easy to mount a diamond wheel.

          Thor.

          #126292
          jason udall
          Participant
            @jasonudall57142

            It does highlight a “problem” with the SL…almost any tooling dwarfs the SL…but nice work. .neat job…guess diamond wheels also avoid shedding grit in the workshop. ..

            #126300
            Ian P
            Participant
              @ianp

              I like it!

              I have an SL doing nothing under the bench so now I know why I kept it.

              One questiion, where did you get the ER25 collet block? I can only find ER32 size.

              Ian P

              #126302
              Ian P
              Participant
                @ianp

                Oops! I see Arc Euro do them.

                I looked at their website 'New Products' page and it has them listed as ER32, its only when you go to the page that the ER25 is shown

                Ian P

                #126306
                Sub Mandrel
                Participant
                  @submandrel

                  I discovered ER25 'stephenson collet blocks' on the Arc Website a few days ago. They also sell Mr S's trusty endmill sharpening block which works like the one above, but with a surface grinder (for the lucky few who have a surface grinder).

                  Neil

                  #126313
                  jason udall
                  Participant
                    @jasonudall57142

                    Just a thought..the SL three jaw would suffice for grinding work holding…and the indexer would also serve…use the stub mounting for that assy. And away you go….

                    #126320
                    Ian P
                    Participant
                      @ianp

                      Jason

                      If you use the chuck to hold and index the cutter you then need another spindle/motor for the diamond wheel, also I doubt the chuck accuracy would be good enough for cutters.

                      The SL spindle is ideal for the grinding wheel, I'm sure with the right pulleys it would be good for 10,000 RPM so its a waste just to index with it.

                      Ian P

                      #126324
                      jason udall
                      Participant
                        @jasonudall57142

                        No use the index unit with chuck for work holding..keep spindle as you say for wheel

                        #126325
                        jason udall
                        Participant
                          @jasonudall57142

                          As to the chuck accuracy…well truw they do vary

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