Dressing tool holder

Mcgvyer posted on the HSM forum about his tool to hold a dressing tool on the grinder:

the known uses, to me anyway, for taper threads went up 50% with this project. Buffing wheel arbors, pipe threads and my tapered thread collect contraption!

been sharpening a lot of end mills lately and have been frustrated at the frequent dressing required AND having to take the end mill out of the holder and mount the wheel dresser.

I wanted a quick, no wrenches way to mount the dresser without altering the set up.

Base plate gets bolted to the table with a short stub, not too many turns to thread the column on. at first the column had a T bolt but it was tough on the table, scratching it each time it was taken on and off because there is inevitably grit between the two. The column screws onto the base plate, knurled ring fits the key way and used to tighten, then drops out of the way. that idea works OK, handy but probably not worth the extra effort, larger OD with knurling near the base would have sufficed



the head that holds the dresser has a taper cut thread and is bored and slit like a collet. tighten up the collar and it looks into place. pretty simple, but works well.





The threaded part, the head I'll call gets clamped via the collet action on the column. Aside from the easy on/off the collet gives, it lets you quickly install it at whatever height you want and pointing in any direction, you just put it at what ever height/direction you want and tighten the ring. feed and doc of the diamond is via the table's control x/y. here's a shot with a little more perspective, you can see the air spindle to the right.

Clamp for bandsaw

Mcgyver posted on the HSM forum his nifty little clamp for holding small pieces in his saw:

I was doing some work today and shot some pictures of an device I made years ago that is so simple, I almost can't call it a device. If you divided usefulness by ease of construction, it's got a huge payback.

The problem is 1) horizontal bandsaws can have the jaws pushed out of square if the clamping force is all on one side and 2) short piece are difficult to hold properly in the bandsaw vice.

All this is is a piece of crs with some holes tapped to fit my strap clamp bolts and a stop to align the work against. One shot is taking a 5/8" disk of a very short piece of 2.625 stock, the other is saving a bunch of hack sawing using the device in vertical position cutting a piece of 1/2" CR at an angle (its barely visible but I did mill a flat so the blade would start properly). Both of these jobs are a real pita without such a device.

Sheet Metal Tank

Mcgyver posted on the HSM forum about building a tank for a hit and miss engine:

Needed to make a brass gas tank for my hit & miss engine and thought you guys might like some pictures. Experts might find the photo's superfluous, but I tried to take enough that it's a bit of a how-to post for someone newer

Lazy mans way of laying out the sheet - propped up against an angle plate, the height gauge makes quick work of the layout. Brass is .028 thou.



A lot of the corner material can be cut with good shears, but as the corners will have tabs, you need to get into them with a fret saw. Here's the simple set up for this job



Cutting out the corner with a fret saw



The sheet is now ready for folding. Corners all cleaned out and any required touchups done with a file



Here the sheet metal is held in a home made set of folding bars - just crs, some dowel pins and cap screws.



In the midst of the first fold - I held the bars vertically as the wasn't enough throat distance in the vice to hold horizontally - a more convenient position. Note that the tabs are not folded over at this setting of the bars



This is the right tool for folding the metal over so as to not mare the surface; a leather mallet



Here is a tab that has just been folded. Note how the bars have been moved so that there is about a 1/32 gap between the bar and the side - this will allow the tab to fold up inside the of the side



Here the work piece is ready to have the ends folded.



Hunt through the scrap box for a chunk of metal to fold against and that will fit in side of the box. Here the end is being folded. Note how the tabs tuck neatly inside of the box.



The narrow lip on the bottom piece is folding using the folding bars



Here's the competed sheet metal work, ready for soldering



Simple solder set up, weight & refractory bricks. Wet paper towel was used as a heat sink around completed joints.



Here a some shots of the competed tank. I had wanted to include shots of bending the pipes and shots of them set up for soldering, but I managed to destroy my camera (arrrg). Bought a new one for these final shots. The pipes were soldering using my 3rd hand design http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//Fo...ML/012958.html





Hope its of some value to you

Grinding wheel balancer

Mcgyver posted on the HSM forum about repairing a grinding wheel balancer, and included a link to an article on how to build one:

I recently came into possession of a grinding wheel balancer, and having fun with the digital camera, recorded the exploits. Prior to, I didn't know much about balancing grinding wheels so thought that maybe posting on it would help some people. The basics i learned via Jan Rowland's article at
http://www.homemetalshopclub.org/news/sep04/sep04.html

some good info there on making your own.

It may or may not help on a bench grinder but on the T&C cutter grinder or surface grinder it can make a real difference.

Here's a nice balancer that came my way. I was surprised to find its metric, $38 for metric die to make a new foot that was hopelessly bent.



I barely had enough room to start a tap with making extensions and once started had to use a wrench. The pillar tool is used to make this awkward start straight.



here's the finished arbor. I must have had a hole go slightly off or some thing as the plate shown need a tiny bit of balancing itself.



next it's the balancing weights. I made them from two thicknesses, .025 and .031. I wanted a very accurate fit on the arbor so that error wouldn't induced between disassembling on the arbor and installation on the grinding spindle. The four sheet metal pieces are sandwiched between a couple of metal plates



After boring, I laid out, sheared and then filed to shape the weights.



here are the finished weights, identified by number. The number will help get it right when its reassembled on the spindle.



the balancer's got a small internal level. I checked and adjusted this with a precision level, will probably do this each time, the internal level is not super sensitive.



here's a final shot of it in use. The location of each weight is marked on the blotter and then its reassembled on the grinding spindle.



The wheel shown, a 'triumph' which I think is KBC's house brand and was in terrible balance, causing noticeable vibration in the machine and on the cut. After balancing, it runs as smoothly as the spindle does empty!

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Here's the article that Mcgyver linked to (actually written by Dick Kostelnicek):

Static Balancing of Grinding Wheels
by Dick Kostelnicek - HMSC Member



What you Need

A 9 x 12 in. surface plate.
A set of 1/4-in. thick parallel pairs.
A precision level.
Two 6 in lengths of undamaged 1/4 in. drill rod.
Super glue and masking tape.
A mandrel or arbor that fits your wheel.
Time and patience

You can statically balance vitrified grinding wheels for both your surface and pedestal grinders with a few common shop tools. Don't worry about dynamic balancing. These wheels don't need it since they are large in diameter compared to the axial thickness and they don't change shape when turning at rated speed. First, build two arbor supports from pieces of ground parallels, as shown in the photo below. I place a very small drop of super glue on each end of a parallel as I stack them on top of one another. Later, you can disassemble them by breaking the glue bond and cleaning the residue with acetone, an excellent solvent for cyanoacrylate glue. Use masking tape (colored blue in the photo} to secure the drill rod to the top of each stack. The round drill rods prevent the sharpness of the edges on the parallels from interfering with the free wheeling of the wheel arbor. Also, debris will be easily squeezed out from under the arbor while rolling on a round rather than a flat surface. Make sure the surface plate is perfectly level in both directions. My plate is supported in a metal frame that has three adjustable screw feet, making it easy to level.



Surface Grinding Wheels First, dress the wheel while mounted on the machine for which it is to be used. This will guarantee that it is round, a necessary step for new, inexpensive, or damaged wheels. Then, mount it on a dummy tapered arbor (see photo below). For balancers, I use a pair of thin spring shims. They are made from 1/8-in. aliminum sheet, split at the bottom of the large hole, and clamp over the wheel hub.



Now, place the wheel arbor on the two supports and allow it to settle to its heavy point (without shims). Mark the high spot of the wheel, calling it the light side mark or LSM, on the edge of the round paper blotter. Then, mount the two shims with their projections perpendicular to the LSM as seen in the photo below.



Rotate both shims in opposite directions a few degrees toward the LSM. Roll the wheel so that the LSM is parallel to the surface plate, and let it settle to its heavy side, photo below.



If the LSM is still on top, move both shims closer to the LSM until the wheel will not rotate when the LSM is turned parallel to the surface plate. Some times you may not rotate both shims by the exact same amount in opposite directions. Then the LSM may not be at the top or bottom after the wheel settles. In that case, move just one of the shims to reset the LSM vertical. This will take some practice, as you will always choose the wrong shim to move or move it in the wrong direction. When the wheel stops rotating at an arbitrary point, well almost any point because you have to stop when it is good enough, then you are done, as seen in the photo below.



Pedestal Grinding wheels The photo below shows an 8-in. pedestal grinding wheel to be balanced. I use a lathe mandrel having a very slight tapered, but that is of no consequence here, to support the wheel and its metal wheel flanges during balancing. I've lightened up one side of each flange by drilling a few holes near the edge. Now the side without holes is the heavy side of the flange and plays the same role as the weighty projection of the clamp-on flanges discussed above in reference to surface grinding wheels. Here, however, you must place one flange on each side of the wheel. Just as discussed above, start without flanges to determine and mark the light side or LSM of the wheel. Place the flanges against opposite sides of the wheel so that the lightening holes are along a line parallel to the surface plate and facing toward opposite sides of the wheel. Now proceed to counter rotate both flanges so the lightening holes move away and downward from the LSM. Stop when the wheel settles at an arbitrary point.



Witness mark the flange against the LSM on each side of the wheel as seen in the photo below. Finally mount the wheel and its flanges on the machine's arbor and spin it up to speed for a test run.



Now, as will often happen, the wheel flanges will not be snug on the dummy arbor during balancing. They may try to always settle to their heavy side while you are rotating the wheel. You may not notice the slippage of the flange as the wheel is rocking to and fro. This can lead to great frustration. Solve this problem by putting a bit of chewing gum between the flange and the wheel. Or better yet, upset the inside of the flange arbor holes with a prick punch as seen in the photo below. Either of these two methods will provide enough friction and prevent the flange from rotating relative to the grinding wheel on its own.



I hope your wheels run with reduced vibration. You may even see less waviness on the surface finish of the items produced on your surface grinder.

Silver Soldering Jig and Tips

Mcgyver posted on the HSM forum about a 'third hand' jig he built for silver soldering:

occasionally I have to silver solder something, and holding the parts in alignment is a real pain. the commercial product below is worse that useless - complete POS



so i made of the following. fairly simple, uses solid cotters







the ball on the last one is for to-be-built arms (one day) the work surfaces are AL so SS doesn't stick and are thin so as not to be heat sinks. the small V-block is angle milled thin and peened onto the shaft, there's also a large one not shown. the larger black spring paper clips (if that's what there called) are good for clamping, although all manner of attachments could be made

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http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/showthread.php?t=14957
Forrest Addy posted the following tips on silver soldering:

Here's from a piece I contributed to the HSM Tips book:

I have years of experience joining metals with silver bearing alloys as a part of my trade. The process is called variously "silver soldering" or "silver brazing". Purists will argue the call indefinitely. I prefer "silver brazing" but the name isn't really that important so long as it's in common use and all agree to the process the term covers.

A prospective maker of tools needs skill and know-how in the selection and use of silver brazing materials and processes. The parts to be joined have to be snugly fitted and cleaned to bright metal, free of oil or other organics (including abrasive cloth residues which inevitably includes powered glue bonding agent). Silver brazing alloys feature high surface tension, high strength, and sudden melting points. The heat source can be anything from a home center Burnz-o-Matic torch, to acetylene, to oxy-hydrogen, to a charcoal grill. All you really need is enough reducing heat that rapidly raises the temperature of the work to brazing heat.

I recommend Harris Safety Silv #56 (I know, phony sounding name, but this stuff has been widely used for generations) and Harris white brazing flux for small brazing projects. Use the black flux for larger projects where a longer 'active time' is necessary. This is available from most any welding supply house in your area. These products are specifically recommended for bonding ferrous alloys to ferrous and copper alloys. The flux in a 6.4 oz plastic jar costs about $7 and the silver as 1/16" wire in a 1 troy oz coil costs about $18. It takes me a few years to consume an ounce of silver brazing alloy wire.

Captive joint fit-ups (a socket joint for example) needs 0.002 to 0.004" total clearance for proper silver penetration. More if the captive part expands more rapidly than the socket (brass or copper in a steel socket). If you set up the joint correctly capillary action of the silver will try to center the components reducing the eccentric displacement you'd ordinarily expect to a fraction of the total clearance.

Have everything on hand, fully cleaned and prepared, even to a 6 to 10" length of the silver wire scrubbed clean with steel wool. Straighten a length and use it right off the coil. Don't cut it; the coil makes a convenient handle

Once the joint has been prepped, devise a means of holding the work in alignment. Thoroughly clean the parts and swab them liberally with flux. Apply heat to the work. The flux will boil from the heat, and as the water flashes off, the flux will turn white. As heating progresses the flux clarifies and begins to look like clear syrup. Procede heating to work to a dull redheat as seen in dim light. Warm the silver and dip it in the flux jar. Warm it again until the flux turns to syrup and apply a dab to the work. It requires a bit of coordination. A lot happens quickly when the work gets to temperature so don't practice on elaborate, hard to replace work.

There will be an instant when the work and the silver arrive at the melting point. The skill of the torch wielder is determined when they both arrive at the melting point at the same instant. A tiny bead of silver sitting on the joint crevice makes a good indicator. It will sit there and glisten then suddenly disappear into the joint like a cockroach into a crack. This will be at a low red heat visible in room light - about 1200 degrees. When the bead disappears apply more silver and a bit more heat working around the joint until the joint brims. Stop and look. Extra silver and heat will not improve the joint.

Allow the work to cool a bit in position before quenching it. Quench only work that tolerates it. HSS and carbide are likely to crack. The flux will tightly adhere like porcelain enamel but it softens after 20 minutes in boiling hot water and then it's easy to remove with a stiff brush. This is an important step because the flux is acidic and hygroscopic. Adherent residues will cause rust on iron or steel and you cannot satisfactorily paint over any kind of flux.

Cast iron silver brazes poorly because the surface graphite interrupts the flow. Glass bead the cast iron's joint area to white metal immediately before brazing. Move briskly in humid weather or if the bead blasting air is moist. Moist cast iron will form an invisible, silver resistant oxidation almost instantly.

Carbide also forms a surface film that resists brazing. I strop the carbide on a diamond sharpening stone to bright metal where I want the silver to stick. Since the film is much softer than the carbide bead blasting also works very well.

Make a couple of long pokers to push and pull the small bits where they need to go. The capillary action of the silver is sometimes enough to shift even medium sized pieces out of position. Simple 3/16" dia bare steel rods 10" long stuck in wood file handles work well. Don't use brass or stainless. An accumulation of dirty black oxide will reduce the tendency of the flux and silver to make the pokers a permanent part of the project.

The flux jar once opened poses a maintenance problem. Keep the jar threads and the lid clean so it seals tightly. If the flux in the jar dries to a sugary looking cake, add a few drops of water and heat it in boiling water. Stir it to a thick but creamy consistency adding drops of water until its about like gel toothpaste. Read the label. Silver brazing flux contains irritants. Wash up afterwards.

Note: some HSS tool steels hold up better to silver brazing heat. Molybdenum HSS, like M2 and M4, soften somewhat and lose edge durability. T-4 holds its hardness much better. Although T-4 is more expensive and would ordinarily be overkill if used on woodworking tools, its edge holding after a spell of silver brazing temperature dictates its selection.

Universal Grinding Fixture

Awhile back Mcgyver posted an excellent writeup of his build of a Universal Grinding Fixture on the HSM forum:

I wanted a universal fixture for the T&C grinder, capable of holding drill bits and lathe tool bits so that I could easily to facetted drill sharpening, acme or V thread bits etc. I had fun taking pics through the build and thought you guys might enjoy them

The assembly was fabricated using my stick welder





Here's an overview of the unit after welding



I sent everything out to be normalized and had the drill V-block case hardened at the same time. Well worth the $30 to know its going to be reasonably stable



For accurate work, you need a reference surface. I decided to scrap in one side of the elbows so there would be no distortion from clamping. Started with the power scraper




and finished with a hand scraper. Almost complete blue-out - good enough for the girls I know!



I bolted each elbow to a tool makers block (made by yours truly, hardened and ground square to 1/10 thou all over and done as a matched pair).



The elbows are now all squared up.



I then made an arbor for the lathe to clean up the circumference.



Here's an elbow, square and ready for divisions



I graduated each axis in degrees - TEDIUM! Gotta get the 4 axis cnc built!



With one disk graduated, the other needs a witness mark. Here I'm using an indicator to get the disk's face parallel to the machine's axis before make a witness mark on the base



Graduating all done!



Here's progress to date, I mainly included this shot to show the tool bit holder attachment.



Now things get messy. I used auto body filler, spot putty and a couple of coats of cellulose primer with sanding in between



This is chronologically a bit out of order - machining on the V-block was done prior to case hardening. Here am drilling the two longitudinal holes, one for the tooth rest gizmo and the other for rest at the end of the drill. The two bars the make up these mechanisms are held via cotters - you can see the brass cotter the intersects the hole and the 1/4" ready rod holding it in place



Here the V is being cut.



Here's the drill stop - an adjustable gizmo that the end of the drill rests against. There are a couple of different attachments for this - ie a long thin adjusting screw for very small dia drills and different lengths of the long rod. It will hold drills from 1/16 to 1" or more



I made this "third hand" rig and posted pics of it here awhile ago, and a few wanted to see it in use - here you go. It's a real time saver, otherwise to do this job properly you'd be pinning or such the pieces together. The work piece is the {rest missing}



I get the best silver solder results by placing small pieces of solder in the flux and then just warming everything up



Here's the tooth rest body after pickling and slitting



The tooth rest is almost done. There will be a micrometer feed on the end, I still have to make the screw and end piece. The idea is that between its built in adjustments and the convenience of the cotter holding it in the V block, its quickly adjustable to any position and then the micrometer adjustment can bring the tooth rest do the final position



The V block is being set up for grinding. It was ground all over after case hardening and an oil quench.



Here's the completed unit. I used the Tremclad hammer finish paint - I don't think I'd recommend it and probably won't use it again but don't have energy right now to refinish.



More Comments:

Graduations were done with the work held in a dividing head and a sharp V with some positive rake ground on a round hss blank held in a collet in the mill. The mill has a friction brake, I locked this on (with duct tape, handy mans secret weapon) and cut each line by moving mill table, cut was about 5 thou deep, 5 & tens marks received longer lines. I've not yet stamped the numbers, will probably use the pillar tool with some sort of rig, but haven't thought that out yet.

It's all mild steel except for the obvious brass pieces. A lot of the photos do look like AL, that's because after normalizing the heat treater kindly ran them through his sandblaster.

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In an update, Mcgvyer posted the following:

For those of you not sick of my grinding pics, here's a follow up and some shots of it in use

First off, I redesigned the micrometer tooth rest - it needed more of an offset and longer range. Here it is ready to go - 5 separate silver solder joints on this assembly





The V block is case hardened and ground all over, also finished the cotters so both the drill stop and tooth rest is very easy to adjust.



The angles are set on the graduated dials on the universal swivel, I was doing a 118 point with two clearance facets, one at 15 and one at 30 degrees. The drill is placed in the v block and the stop and tooth rest adjusted then tightened down. I generally index the drill and do both cuts on one facet then change the angle of the base to do the second facet or bevel. Over the past couple of week ends I made a mobile stand for bench top T&C - I found it really hard to set up (ie tooth rest) if I couldn't get access all around the machine to view the set up.



Grinding grinding grinding



By making different lengths of rod for the drill stop, the rig can hand almost any size drill



The final result. Yeah, I can sharpen a drill by hand but it will take me a lifetime of Sundays to get so that they are as nice as this. Since they are virtually perfectly symmetrical, the cut very accurately. The one I tried and measured was within a thou, give the limits of small hole gauges.

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On the Shop Made Tools thread on the Home Shop Machinist forum, mattinker posted some photos of an alternative design that looks like it might be simpler to build. He says: "My tooling for my Clarkson Mk I T&G is slowly getting there, slowly. When I made my Morse 3 tool holder, I discovered split cotters. So I started with three of the following "D" shapes, two of which had split cotters. I fabricated around the "D's", the base plate one is a little bigger. The 20mm diameter CRS round was welded to the first "D" and the face that mates with the second was faced off. A second stub was welded to the second "D" which was faced off to mate with the first using a stub of CRS locked with the split cotter. The third "D" with the second split cotter with the vice mounting plate welded to it. The vise is a 1" screwless from CTC Tools which is big enough for my biggest lathe tools.