Thread: Sander mill

Originally Posted by Tiger

I had a go at making a sander mill as per big shed. I turned the part that will take the pen barrel first, got it to the perfect diameter for slimlines and then chucked this part to turn down the part that will go into the drill, lathe etc. i ended up with approx 7 to 8 thous of runout at the end. Fred or others, how much runout is acceptable for this type of mill, and what procedure did you use to turn this when you did it? There was quite a bit of chatter on my metal lathe, i could not get a live centre into the end, the toolpost kept getting in the way.

What sort of metal lathe do you have ? , most times you need to swing your compound slide at about 15/20 degrees towards you , this gets it out of the way of the tailstock, if needed stick the tool out a bit further till you get clearance from the live centre , In any case a set of transfer punches is a better option ,choose the closest size to the inside tube you are trying to square up, hold it in your drill chuck slide on the tube you want to sand , and move it up towards your sanding disk in your chuck , stop short with the bar , then gently hold the tube on the bar and slowly and gently move it onto the sanding disk , the tube will be parallel with the support bar ,and so, square on the ends to the tube after a light sanding . I just use a standard disk sander belt sander combo ,square the ends close to the brass ,put it between centres and turn to round ,then hold the round turned section in my three jaw chuck ( Sieg c3_ metal lathe ) then face the ends till I just touch the brass , then turn to top size between centres ,and finish on the woodfast, perfect every time .So many ways to skin a cat, or make a pen hehe,what works for one is not always the only ,or even the best way to do things ,as individuals we all do things our own way that suits us and our purpose , cheers ~ John

G'day John, thought i'd make up a sander mill it's quicker than setting up a transfer punch and plus you can use it in your drill or stick a handle on it and sand it square. I'd only be using it to clean up the ca residue. I use the transfer punch method that you described to square the ends bit i wanted to do something on the metal lathe, it's the 9 x 20 size, i guess i should have found a way to get a live centre in. Have re-turned it a bit so it runs truer so we'll see how it goes, but it sure eats up the sandpaper this way.

Tiger for cleaning up the CA on the ends I use a piece of sandpaper on a flat surface then holding the blank vertically and as close to the sandpaper as possible , a gentle circular motion on the sandpaper ,and turning the blank around a few times will quickly bring your blank back to square ,you can feel when its ok ,as soon as you hit the brass your done I think I use a bit of 240 wet and dry but you don't want it too fine as will take longer to do. Cheers ~ John

John, i have tried that but found i couldn't keep the blank perfectly vertical, also finding that the sanding mill goes through sandpaper like its going out of fashion, the sanding only takes place on the same part of the sandpaper thus wearing it out quickly.

Yep it does take practice to do them freehand , and yes the sandpaper does wear rather quickly, especially on hard CA it can cut a groove as quick as a wink, Thinking on this a little you need something abrasive ,not too coarse and easy to set up. I have not tried this on ca and wood ,but what about a mounted stone as a pen mill ,only needs about 1" dia and flat on the end face, a 1/4" shaft ,probably a cheap grey stone from the local hardware store would do. That would be set up in a lathe chuck , or drill machine . Those stones can take water so a short squirt should keep the heat down ,as heat can bugger the ca on your ends and you can get delamination, not good at all . I might try that when next I do a Ca finish cheers ~ John

Nice idea, can't see why that wouldn't work John, if you do give it a try, let us know how it goes.

I have posted this elsewhere so it was easy to find.

Can I suggest you make something like this out of a mandrel. Other than the cost of the mandrel (and you only need a cheap one) the rest of the stuff is probably lying around your shed. It is designed to square off the end of a blank before you press it together and works a treat.

Hope this helps

Greg

Nice and simple Greg, thanks for sharing.