Slot drills

[Gary BrookeParticipant @garybrooke63895]

[Gary BrookeParticipant @garybrooke63895]

Just been reading the latest edition ME. In the article on Roedean mention is made that home made slot drills are more efficient. Does anyone know if this is true and how do you make them.
Regards
Gary

[Anonymous]

I doubt it was true when it was written, and I doubt it is true now. I assume that any home made cutter would use silver steel, and there’s no way it is going to compete with HSS or carbide in the metal removal stakes.

 

Regards,

 

Andrew

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

I 2nd that motion. I can’t think of any reason why a home made cutter would be better than a commercial item produced by companies with huge investments in research,technology and experience.

Tony

[Eric LougheedParticipant @ericlougheed54619]

How about ‘cost’?

Much of what we do in modelling seems to be ‘work-around’, and if it takes an hour to make and 2hrs to use a home=made cutter, when a commercial cutter would cost a lot more money and do it in half the time, so what? The job satisfaction lies surely in making something work to achieve something that works.

Eric Lougheed

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

With respect not many people could make a decent cutter in an hour and if it takes twice as long to do the job it can’t be that good can it? I am all for home made if it is better than commercial [ I have made some lovely beers!] but I really don’t want to be struggling with dodgy/soft/blunt cutters, you will get bad work from them and a lot of frustration and will cost you more in the long term. I use what I consider to be the right tool for each job I tackle be it wood work, metal work or DIY, that I believe is the way to go.

Tony

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, in the article LBSC says, ” I prefer home-made slot drills as they mow off the surplus metal much faster than any commercial endmill of regular pattern.” He wasn’t comparing the efficiency of home made slot drills with commercial slot drills.

 

I don’t know when this article was written originally, but maybe slot drills weren’t readily available then, and it is quite possible that LBSC was using a treadle powered lathe at the time.

 

I don’t know how he made his slot drills BTW, maybe he used old twist drills that were worn/broken down to a sort length.

 

Regards Nick.

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi There

You are missing the fact that the article was published in 1948.

I am trying to print it as it was then hence I left the bit about home-made cutters in.

Things have moved on since then.

regards David

 

[Anonymous]

I’m well aware of when the original article was published, long before I was born.

 

Rationing was still in force, and I expect that slot drills, end mills and the like were difficult and expensive to obtain. So making a cutter at home would make sense. That does not necessarily mean that the home made cutter was more efficient at removing metal, which was the point queried by the OP.

 

Regards,

 

Andrew

[Eric CoxParticipant @ericcox50497]

“You are missing the fact that the article was published in 1948.I am trying to print it as it was then”

That explains the poor quality of the drawings for the frames.

 

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi There

The drawings are resonable quality.

They were printed to small.

I have printed them again in a later issue.

They are now larger.

regards David

[Author]

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