There was a recent thread on the MEW forum about Noga tools. It led me to download the Noga catalogue as a PDF. I am amazed at the technology that Noga produce to just remove burrs.
They are lovely tools and well worth the investment. I particularly like the external Rotodrive EX18 countersink. This is very handy for cleaning up the end of a newly threaded rod so the new thread will ‘take’. So quick and easy.
What really took my fancy in the catalogue on page 51 was this combination tool. That’s certainly one for my Christmas list.
No affiliation to Noga. I just like their technology.
“Better to have it and not need need it than to need it and not have it” – Jimmy Diresta.
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There are many ways to set a tool centre line on a lathe. The most basic is just to trap a 6″ rule between the workpiece and the tool edge and adjust so the rule is vertical.
One gizmo I picked up at a trade show from the Machine DRO booth is this very useful tool by Edge Technology.
Edge Technology Lathe Tool Alignment jig
It is simple but clever. You mount the rod in the lathe chuck and then rest the bubble anvil on the tool edge. Edge Technology also do a more refined version with a calibrated scale.
It is not something that you use every day but every now and then I have a session with it and go through all my QCTP tooling and tweak them.
(If it has been one of those ‘not settling to anything’ days you can at least switch the workshop lights off with a warm glow that you did something useful …)
(I have no affiliation to Machine DRO or any other manufacturer or supplier I might mention in my write ups but I will mention any nice pieces of kit I come across or use).
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While investigating four facet drill sharpening, I came across John Moran’s website which detailed his design for a four facet drill sharpener. Four facet sharpening is popular for providing more accurate starting of a hole, less drilling pressure, more accurate hole size and better retention of drill point sharpness. John’s design is intended for sharpening 2mm to 12mm drill bits.
I have a Quorn grinder but it is not something that I can quickly pull out from under the bench to sharpen the odd drill. John’s design looked easy to set up and use and certainly easier to carry. I have been working with him to produce this hybrid version. I recommend that you read John’s write up before embarking on either his original design or my 3D printed hybrid version. He also presents a YouTube video on how to use the sharpener.
Here is a picture of John’s finished design. Very nicely finished and presented.
Here is a picture (not quite so pretty …) of my 3D printed hybrid version. A new baseplate might be in order to smarten it up.
The concept of combining 3D printed components with essential metal parts works very well and the resulting sharpener appears to be stable and repeatable in its results. There is a huge advantage in combining technologies in this manner. All the ‘boring’ or ‘dreading to make / leave until tomorrow’ parts are easily produced on a 3D printer and the remaining metal parts are straightforward to produce with conventional resources and skills.
Rather than go into details as a blog post, below is a link to a ZIP file that contains my full write up, 2D PDF drawings of the metal parts, STEP files of the 3D printed files and the raw Fusion files for those wanting to tweak.
If you can’t work with STEP files then let me know and I will run STL versions. STEP files are more accurate than STLs and also have the advantage of being more easily editable than STLs.
I think you will be impressed with the end result of John’s design.
If this write up or my general waffle is of interest then please subscribe to receive notices of new posts. If you build the sharpener and it works let me know. If it doesn’t work and it’s my fault for not providing enough information than email me so I can correct things.
I have already had some feedback on the 3D printed design so some of you are quick off the mark.
This feedback related to the friction of the collet holder shank in the block and also the print roughness against the depth setting screw. Both of these will relate to the print quality from your printer.
As an experiment I ran a new version of the block with a larger bore and then lined it with an aluminium sleeve that was a smooth fit on the shank. I also turned a flange on the end of this sleeve so that the adjuster nut had a smooth metal surface to ride against.
The addition of the sleeve looks promising in solving these two issues. I admit it is going against the concept of a 3D printed set of parts but the sleeve is easy to turn up on the lathe and the new block in PLA is still much easier to produce that trying to make the block totally in metal.
You can download the edited write up, new collet chuch holder block STEP and the sleeve drawing in this add on ZIP file.
I am slowly getting to understand how to manipulate and use my recently purchased Quorn tool cutter grinder. One frustration that kept cropping up was the workhead assembly slip rotating on the bed bar. This usually happens when there is a need to slide the tool holder head back after a referencing action. This messes up the reference setting.
I chanced upon a thread on the MEW forum where a John P had solved this problem with a parallel support bar assembly. This utilised the 1/4″unused hole in the toolholder side wall. There are a number of ways to fabricate this fixture but the important aspects are that it should be robust and must ensure a parallel motion along the support rod.
The cutter grinder tool head support bar mounted on my Quorn
I opted to model the bracket in Fusion 360. As there will be little stress on the bracket in use I opted to mill it from 15mm cast aluminium to give a 12mm finishing depth. Here is the pictorial view from the Fusion desktop.
Fusion 360 model of the Quorn cutter grinder tool head bracket. The bracket measures around 90mm end to end.
The bracket has a 5/8″ hole to match the Quorn table slider rod and a 10mm hole for the new parallel support rod (sorry about the mixed dimensions but my Quorn is an Imperial model and most of my stock is metric).
Side #1 CAM operations are to clean up skim the stock top surface followed by profiling the two holes and the outside shape. Side #2 is to invert the model and deck the excess material. The clamping slots, the flat adjacent to the 5/8″ hole and the M4 tapped holes are all supressed in the CAM and manually cut post CNC operations.
The model has two tabs adjacent to the 10mm hole. These have no relevance to the use of the bracket but are there to make the width of the model equal. This negates the need to use soft jaws to hold the model when undertaking side 2 operations to deck off the excess stock material. The decking brings the model to 10mm finishing depth. These two tabs could be ground off afterwards if desired.
I did consider grub screw clamping of both bars but there was a danger of deforming the associated bars. It was easier and more elegant to design slot clamps into the Fusion model. The clamping slits were cut post CNC machining on my BK3 bandsaw. (Try cutting straight slots on a BK3 without a decent fence and support bearings.) The parallel nature of the finished model width as mentioned above makes this a simple process against the bandsaw fence.
The two M4 clamping screw holes are drilled prior to the slots being cut. The holes are drilled 3.3mm through and then M4 through threaded. After the slots are cut one half of each hole is clearance drilled to M4.
The flat adjacent to the 5/8″ hole is the last ‘after CNC’ machining operation. This flat gives the clearance needed to allow the bracket to slide under the Quorn toolholder referencing dial.
The gliding bar is mounted in the spare hole in the tool holder side wall. This hole in my Quorn had been drilled 1/4″. The rod profile was turned with a centre from 10mm silver steel to have the 1/4″ section and then a short section threaded M6. Note that I also made a brass washer profiled to match the rear face of the through hole in the body. Like most of the Quorn casting holes this had a step segmented surface aimed at stopping bolt head rotations.
Fusion 360 pictorial view of the assemblyQuorn cutter grinder tool head support components – this shows the bracket with support bar in place, supporting rod and profiled washer.
Mounted on the Quorn, the assembly sat nicely parallel, is very solid and stable and does an excellent job of stopping the head drooping. My frustrations over this aspect of the Quorn are eased for the time being.
If any readers want the Fusion file or dimensioned drawings then add a comment below.
UPDATE : – The bracket should be rigid enough when 3D printed instead of machined from solid. Here is a ZIP file containing the support bar clamp version v5 as a STEP file. All the other parts are straightforward lathe operations.
I am a great lover of the Raaco 18 section storage boxes for my various sizes and ranges of nut and bolt fasteners. These boxes are not unduly expensive and are very durable with a sliding locking latch (assuming you don’t forget to slide it place – see below).
To date these boxes have been stowed stacked one of top of the other on the shelf above my office workbench. Come the need to get a particular size fastener for a job I can bet on the box I need to access being at the bottom of the stack. This can get frustrating and can also be risky because if I haven’t fastened the lid properly there is an ever present possibility of a lot of fasteners hitting the floor with some associated colourful expletives.
As you have probably gathered from the previous post, this has been woodwork week or at least MDF week if that counts as real woodworking. After finishing the storage box for my clock bushing gizzmo I still had MDF to spare. With some judicious juggling in Fusion 360, I came up with a design for a slide in storage rack for my Raaco box collection. In fact there was enough MDF left over to make two of these. I did have to buy in some 30mm x 2mm angle though. The design allows access to any fastener box without the need to shuffle the stack to get at the one I needed. Joy of joys.
The storage unit is 300mm high and has MDF sides and back board. I had to revert to a 1mm sheet of aluminium for the top and bottom surfaces to get the optimum number of boxes to fit between the workshop shelves. Each storage slot has an aperture of 250mm x 47mm (excluding the aluminium angle) and is 180mm deep.
The added bonus to the design is that the Raaco fastener slide is a very tactile grab handle to draw the wanted box out of the rack. The feel of the slide also acts as a warning flag that the slide might not be correctly locked in place.
Yes I know it is all a bit anal. Making things to make things etc but less frustration means more productivity … well that’s the theory.
