Thread: Cutting a dovetail

Looks good...

Mike,

Looks good to me

Dave'H

Turned out fine, how is the cutter after doing them?

Dave

They look great.

I don't like the burs though!

The cutter seems to be fine . I did the last cut 'down cutting' as from what the books say it produces a better finish .

I'd hate to damage the dovetail cutter as they are expensive things compared to a end mill . In his milling book, Harold describes in detail, how to cut dovetails with a ordinary end mill . He has many clever ways of improvising .


The burrs . I filed them off .

Mike

Hi Mike,
That would be climb milling, and you have to be very careful if your machine has backlash because it will actually pull the work into the cutter instead of pushing it away. It sounds like you got away with it this time being only a light cut, but just keep this in mind for future reference as it can break cutters.

Dave

Originally Posted by morrisman

The cutter seems to be fine . I did the last cut 'down cutting' as from what the books say it produces a better finish .

I'd hate to damage the dovetail cutter as they are expensive things compared to a end mill . In his milling book, Harold describes in detail, how to cut dovetails with a ordinary end mill . He has many clever ways of improvising .


The burrs . I filed them off .

Mike

Someone commented on my lack of de burring on another thread so why should you get away with it!

Some progress .

The gib is a firm fit , I lapped the last few thou on a diamond plate

Mike

Looks like you got a nice fit, great work.

Dave

Looks like a pretty good job to me, well done.

Squirrel

Are there any rules with dovetails? Does it matter which part is keyed female or male?? Is one better than the other???

Thanks

I'm beginning to get the 'feel' of this machine and knowing more of what it is capable of . I am planning on installing a quill down feed stop , something simple like a bolt with a fine thread and a nut on it , fitted onto the casting where the horrible original pointer thing was .

I am having some difficulty adjusting the tramming to where it should be , it's pretty close, bit not perfect . I recall seeing a thread about how to tram these machines , but I cannot find it .

Mike

Hi Mike,

Nice work with the dovetail fitting..

Just for future reference, if you were doing something like a lathe cross slide or precision job, the trick is to make the gib slightly bellied so that as it comes tight it contacts the ends of the gib, that way you minimize any rocking tendancy.. I think you'll have to come to the next scraping class...

Regards
Ray

Great work on the dovetails

you did beter than i did i tried cutting dovtails for my boring head project and shtered my cutter so it's on hold till i get a new one