Pottyengineering Cutter Grinder

[Stewart HartParticipant @stewarthart90345]

The fertiliser for this came from a number of sources:- John Stevenson's cross vice use, and Harold Hall's book: tool and cutter sharpening from the workshop practice series.

Its basically a compilation of commercially available parts, that consist of:-

Myford vertical slide.

Bench Grinder

Mill Table

Stevenson's ER32 index blocks

The parts are all bolted down on a thick chunk of ally plate, The grinders motor wiring was rerouted to allow is to be mounted direct to the vertical slide. The mill table is one supplied by axminster that I bought second hand, but there are other types available from other suppliers that could be used just as well. The grinding fixtures from Harold Halls book can easily used with this set up, the mill table makes their use a lot easier and more positive.

I'll let the photographs speak for them selves

[Stewart HartParticipant @stewarthart90345]

[Mark P.Participant @markp]

Oh yes we like this,keep it simple.

Mark P.

[John CoatesParticipant @johncoates48577]

Having a spare small XY table and Myford vertical swivel slide I like it even more as a T&C grinder is on my "must have" list due to my hamfisted newbie blunting of cutters

When the new workshop is up and running in the spring this will be its first project

Thanks a lot

John

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Stewart !!

I wish you hadn't posted that – I'm about 2/3 of the way through a STENT build – have I wasted my time?!

( In truth though that is food for thought and maybe there is a shortcut or two that I could adopt from your ideas)

Thanks

Norman

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

Nice looking grinder Stewart, and as said very simple to make. I too use a small milling table and grinding wheels on an Emco Unimat to grind my blunt slot drills.

Thor

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Looks good and solid Stew, the long travel should allow it to be used for basic surface grinding, if not with micron accuracy enough to get that nice finish and things good and square.

I used a clarke grinder just like that as the spindle for my 'Trent' grinder. It is very smooth and runs very truly – I was able to turn a collar for the diamond wheel in situ using the centres in the grinder spindle and got an excellent result. My worry is that it heats up quite quickly.

Neil

[Stewart HartParticipant @stewarthart90345]

Thanks for your interest Guys.

This is very much a work in progress I've stripped it down to do some modifications:- secure the wiring: fit a guard for the cup wheel : fit a y stop: and fit some dust covers and felt oilers to the ways.

The Axminster x-y table is a little on the big side a smaller table would be more in keeping but it came my way at the right price.

As Neal said it has possibilities for other applications, that's something I plan to explore in the future that and other a cutter grinder uses.

Neal:- I seem to remember that paraffin was used as a coolant on diamond wheels when I worked in the tool room.

Stew

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Neal:- I seem to remember that paraffin was used as a coolant on diamond wheels when I worked in the tool room.

I've used paraffin applied with a small paintbrush, but since read that it doesn't make a big difference. My wheel doesn't get a lot of use – just lightly resharpening end mills – and still looks like new.

Neil

[Stewart HartParticipant @stewarthart90345]

Posted by Stub Mandrel on 30/11/2013 20:26:21:

Neal:- I seem to remember that paraffin was used as a coolant on diamond wheels when I worked in the tool room.

I've used paraffin applied with a small paintbrush, but since read that it doesn't make a big difference. My wheel doesn't get a lot of use – just lightly resharpening end mills – and still looks like new.

Neil

We used gallons of the stuff to flood the wheel:- use to go home reeking of paraffin:- better than "old spice" for pulling the birds

Stew

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

G'day. What a great project. This could maybe  the basis of an interesting M.E.W. article – ask David.

Regards from the land of the kangaroo

* Danny M *

Edited By Danny M2Z on 01/12/2013 08:01:05

[Stewart HartParticipant @stewarthart90345]

I don't think it's developed enough for an article yet Danny, I keep seeing things that can be improved.

I'm going to add a riser block under the myford swivel slide this will speed up the set up time and allow the wheel to be tilted this will open up other possibilities.

I'd like to add a Y stop but I'm struggling to see the best way this could be done, still having a good think on that one .

Cheers

Stew

[Stewart HartParticipant @stewarthart90345]

Made an end mill sharpening fixture for the grinder its a bit of a mixture of ideas that I've seen plus a few of my own, its base round a ER32 straight shank collet holder with a cam operated block for grinding down the flutes plus am index ring so that the one fixture will deal with the complete sharpening of an end mill.

This video should give you an idea how it works.

Stew

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

Very nice, if you didn't want to manufacture the ER32 end mill holder I imagine you could integrate one of John Stevenson's end mill sharpening fixtures which already has suitable angles required for end mill sharpening.

Paul

[Stewart HartParticipant @stewarthart90345]

That's a good idea Paul, especially if you mounted it horizontally on my home brew cutter grinder.

Stew

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

John's fixture is quite robust and would easily stand having the base drilled and tapped, attach to your homebrew grinders compound table with a sturdy ribbed angle plate perhaps.

You could take this a stage further if all you wanted to do was sharpen end mill lips attach John's fixture (or similar) to your lathe cross slide with a similar arrangement and mount your stone/diamond wheel in a collet.

Mount the fixture on your lathe topslide and if your slide permits enough rotation you then have the facility to crudely sharpen ball end mills.

Paul

[Stewart HartParticipant @stewarthart90345]

Bin struggling with man flue its kept me out of the shed

(yes its that bad)

So kept myself busy drawing the fixture up.

[Rod AshtonParticipant @rodashton53132]

Stewart

Thank you for your timely design.

Have acquired 60% of a Stent and cobbled it to a redundant saddle grinder. Just ordered an ER 32 spindle when you posted this.

May I ask if there are any bearings in your spindle block? Would like to request a little more detail on the cam locking if possible and the way the spindle block is dowelled to the square section for sliding squarely.

Rod

[Stewart HartParticipant @stewarthart90345]

Hi Rod

There are no bearings in the spindle block its just a good sliding fit the ER32 holder has a fine ground finish so thing move very slick.

The cam is just a flat machined on the lever, the block is spring loaded an pivots on two 1/4" ball bearings.

If you send me a private message through the forum with you email address I'll email you a full set of drawings.

The design is a compilation of ideas I got from Philip Duclos shop wisdom book and Harold Halls Book No 38 in the workshop practice series plus a few ideas of my own.

Stew

[dcostaParticipant @dcosta]

Hello Stewart, good morning.

After my Harold Hall's grinding rest suffered deep rust from a fire, I'm interested in to rebuild part of it.
Your draw suggests me a good replacement for the end mill sharpening fixture.
Will you, please, be so kind as to let me use your drawings drawings?

Thanks in advance
Dias Costa

[Stewart HartParticipant @stewarthart90345]

Hi

If you send me a personal message through the forum with your email address I’ll post the drawings to you

Stew

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Hi Stuart,

Like Rod, I have also just acquired a part-built Stent, so this would be useful for me too. As mentioned elsewhere, I have too much going on at the moment but better tool sharpening is quite high up my 'Tuit' list, so I'll PM you as well if that's OK.

Regards,

IanT

[Rod AshtonParticipant @rodashton53132]

John

Thank you most sincerely for the details. Could`nt have been more helpful, short of adopting the wife!!!

Regards

Rod

[Stewart HartParticipant @stewarthart90345]

Thanks Chaps:- Its my pleasure to help

I'd be interested to her your experiences with the design, grinding up the flutes defiantly needs practice but you can achieve reasonable results never the less.

The X-Y table I used is probably larger than is actually required and smaller ones are on the market but I picked it up at the correct price . Once you have the basic grinder together it opens up quite a few opportunities for tool sharpening, with the correct fixtures you can use it for quite a range of applications, I've made a slitting saw fixture similar to the one in Harold Halls book and used it successfully to grind slitting saws up.

I've been working on this project on and off for about five years now, and I was far from certain how successful it would end up, as a result I haven't many in build pictures but I think I have enough to put together an article for one of the magazines.

Thanks again for your interest

Stew

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