QuarkVI
31st December 2015, 09:26 PM
Thought I would share some pics of some tools I have been making over the last week while on leave and how I made them - hopefully useful to someone.
Firstly a simple scraper, square skew, round skew and three square/point tool all made from stock 200mm high speed steel bars
<tbody>
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ux6DaUCTbx8/VoTzQRMISQI/AAAAAAAAAW4/RdPVgw5b2ns/s144-Ic42/upload_-1.jpg (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iamKj3NptNL1JBe08_nsZdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite)
</tbody>
The round skew works a charm. The square skew needs some work as need to relieve the bar behind the main bevel some as it gets in the way - was originally intended to be used as a scraper per Guilio Marcolongo - need to experiment with this a bit more as initial trials haven't been too successful. Still learning to get the right grind on the scraper but that is mostly meant to finish boxes so still learning to use it well. The point tool is probably too long but still playing around with it - think I will also make one in 10mm bar - plan to use it when easing edges before thread chasing and hope that it will give me a way to turn small beads on boxes.
Secondly some hollowing tools for small vessels and christmas ornaments (I will explain the handled chucks)
<tbody>
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DDnrwdltyPY/VoTzSRMunCI/AAAAAAAAAXA/RJSGxxVMA9o/s144-Ic42/upload_-1.jpg (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Bbj7ttb5fjWBW7Lz5F-S-NMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite)
</tbody>
<tbody>
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uQICp6mxJxw/VoTzOvf16gI/AAAAAAAAAWw/7ap0DdEYsw8/s144-Ic42/upload_-1.jpg (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/SuIMz0XoNtjELQkRzrO3iNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite)
</tbody>
The smaller handled chuck (10mm chuck from toasted cheapo battery drill) I made to hold small drills when drilling into the end of things e.g. putting hooks in and have had/used that for a while. Too lazy to find the right unf thread to put into to join to handle so just epoxied some 8mm allthread into it and back into the handle.
The hollowing tools were basically a knock off of what George Watkins (Home (http://www.fromthetree.co.uk)) makes and sells - which I found accidentally after admiring his smaller scale work. They are 10mm silver steel (used that because I could mail order, its shiny/pretty and I didn't have the time to go and pick up 6m of mild steel pre Christmas) with bits made from 5mm hss round bar super glued in.
After making them I played around a bit with them on some soft woods and was thoroughly disappointed with how poorly they performed ... looked at some more videos and tried again ... failed again. At this point I hadn't bothered making handles for them as I didn't want to waste the effort if they didn't work for me. For some reason I threw one into my smaller handled chuck and tried that - WOOHOOO! Success! Made the world of difference. At that point I remembered I had a broken drill in a box somewhere which I dug out and pulled out the half inch chuck plus shaft to put into a handle. I purposefully kept the handle shorter based on the way I was using the tool - my left hand is on the bar over the tool rest while my right hand holds the chuck with my forearm on the handle - I am also only doing small scale work with these - so far leverage has not been an issue. I did trim the angled tool back from what I had originally as it was just too long to fit through a 15mm opening easily. Haven't decided yet whether the round bar is a good thing or not reckon it will depend on me figuring out the best angles to use the tools at - I have some 10mm square bar just in case.
The 8mm allen key was ground today specifically to do around the opening of a Christmas ornament and fits nicely into the chuck handle :- and did a superb job of opening things up before switching to the other angle tool
As an aside before remembering that I had the drill chuck I was just going to order a cheap ER20 collet with straight shaft from aliexpress to put on a handle to hold multiple small hollowing tools.
All the tips are ground similarly - flat on top with a ~70 degree grind under that - after initially shaping on the CBN they only see the diamond credit card sharpener now.
Besides a couple of prototype Christmas ornaments (first time I am attempting) I also used them to undercut a simple box lip. When used with a smooth sweeping motion they are capable of an even finish but definitely need another tool to get an acceptable finish hence the playing with the scraper. I have got an order in for a 6mm carbide tool to see how that handles the inside of boxes. Also need to order some hemostats/forceps to help with the sanding of inside of the boxes - another learning curve ... starting to second guess my decision to put better lighting in as I am now realising that sanding isn't as simple as one would think.
Best of the new year to everyone
cheers
Robin
Firstly a simple scraper, square skew, round skew and three square/point tool all made from stock 200mm high speed steel bars
<tbody>
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ux6DaUCTbx8/VoTzQRMISQI/AAAAAAAAAW4/RdPVgw5b2ns/s144-Ic42/upload_-1.jpg (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iamKj3NptNL1JBe08_nsZdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite)
</tbody>
The round skew works a charm. The square skew needs some work as need to relieve the bar behind the main bevel some as it gets in the way - was originally intended to be used as a scraper per Guilio Marcolongo - need to experiment with this a bit more as initial trials haven't been too successful. Still learning to get the right grind on the scraper but that is mostly meant to finish boxes so still learning to use it well. The point tool is probably too long but still playing around with it - think I will also make one in 10mm bar - plan to use it when easing edges before thread chasing and hope that it will give me a way to turn small beads on boxes.
Secondly some hollowing tools for small vessels and christmas ornaments (I will explain the handled chucks)
<tbody>
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DDnrwdltyPY/VoTzSRMunCI/AAAAAAAAAXA/RJSGxxVMA9o/s144-Ic42/upload_-1.jpg (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Bbj7ttb5fjWBW7Lz5F-S-NMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite)
</tbody>
<tbody>
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uQICp6mxJxw/VoTzOvf16gI/AAAAAAAAAWw/7ap0DdEYsw8/s144-Ic42/upload_-1.jpg (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/SuIMz0XoNtjELQkRzrO3iNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite)
</tbody>
The smaller handled chuck (10mm chuck from toasted cheapo battery drill) I made to hold small drills when drilling into the end of things e.g. putting hooks in and have had/used that for a while. Too lazy to find the right unf thread to put into to join to handle so just epoxied some 8mm allthread into it and back into the handle.
The hollowing tools were basically a knock off of what George Watkins (Home (http://www.fromthetree.co.uk)) makes and sells - which I found accidentally after admiring his smaller scale work. They are 10mm silver steel (used that because I could mail order, its shiny/pretty and I didn't have the time to go and pick up 6m of mild steel pre Christmas) with bits made from 5mm hss round bar super glued in.
After making them I played around a bit with them on some soft woods and was thoroughly disappointed with how poorly they performed ... looked at some more videos and tried again ... failed again. At this point I hadn't bothered making handles for them as I didn't want to waste the effort if they didn't work for me. For some reason I threw one into my smaller handled chuck and tried that - WOOHOOO! Success! Made the world of difference. At that point I remembered I had a broken drill in a box somewhere which I dug out and pulled out the half inch chuck plus shaft to put into a handle. I purposefully kept the handle shorter based on the way I was using the tool - my left hand is on the bar over the tool rest while my right hand holds the chuck with my forearm on the handle - I am also only doing small scale work with these - so far leverage has not been an issue. I did trim the angled tool back from what I had originally as it was just too long to fit through a 15mm opening easily. Haven't decided yet whether the round bar is a good thing or not reckon it will depend on me figuring out the best angles to use the tools at - I have some 10mm square bar just in case.
The 8mm allen key was ground today specifically to do around the opening of a Christmas ornament and fits nicely into the chuck handle :- and did a superb job of opening things up before switching to the other angle tool
As an aside before remembering that I had the drill chuck I was just going to order a cheap ER20 collet with straight shaft from aliexpress to put on a handle to hold multiple small hollowing tools.
All the tips are ground similarly - flat on top with a ~70 degree grind under that - after initially shaping on the CBN they only see the diamond credit card sharpener now.
Besides a couple of prototype Christmas ornaments (first time I am attempting) I also used them to undercut a simple box lip. When used with a smooth sweeping motion they are capable of an even finish but definitely need another tool to get an acceptable finish hence the playing with the scraper. I have got an order in for a 6mm carbide tool to see how that handles the inside of boxes. Also need to order some hemostats/forceps to help with the sanding of inside of the boxes - another learning curve ... starting to second guess my decision to put better lighting in as I am now realising that sanding isn't as simple as one would think.
Best of the new year to everyone
cheers
Robin