Thread: Metalwork question: making your own tools

Originally Posted by jmk89

But poetry is music to the soul!! and a balm to the spirit

Whatever, I always like reading your posts, Cam.

Jeremy

Music to the soul. That is what I meant...

Anyway, enough of this - you're making me blush.

Cam

Got the bits today and started in on the job.

5/16" x 8" M2 HSS, $26

2 off 5/8" x 30cm mild steel rods $4

drill press vice, $15

experience of drilling rods, priceless!

grrr

There's alway the bandsaw joining silver solder & flux that Carbatec advertise. Used with a small propane torch.

I believe that bright mild steel shafting is a better alternative for the shafts. Precision ground to size and a better grade of steel.

Shaft?? lock by Loctite is very good for joining a cutting end to the shaft. This stuff will hold a gear to the shaft when the keyway is damaged and needs something like red heat to break the bond.

What about using gudgeon pins from small motors for gouge ends. Just reshape them with an angle grinder and cutting wheel. Turn the end of your shaft down to go into the pin then Loctite it in. 16mm (5/8") is about right for the shaft.


Ken

What about using gudgeon pins from small motors for gouge ends. Just reshape them with an angle grinder and cutting wheel. Turn the end of your shaft down to go into the pin then Loctite it in. 16mm (5/8") is about right for the shaft.

5/16" x 8" M2 HSS

Ern, 5/16 X 8 now thats a decent bit of tool steel it'll be a while before you grind that one away. Plenty to play with for the berger tool as well.

Loctite will work well but it works best with reasonably tight tolerances. Never the less a good idea as it will melt with heat.Read some where that R.Raffan fixes his gouges that way to the handles
Gudgeon pins, another good idea Ken. Dunno what sort of steel or its wear characteristics are but its worth a try.

hughie

Hughie,

8" was the smallest length they had. So yep, will be playing around with a Berger shape as well as an Oland one.

There's now a superglue with some kind of antishatter formula that I'll give a try, sposed to be good for metals.

The rods turned out to be bright steel, but too tight so they're taking a bit of grinding and sanding down.

Next step is to shape the Berger style tip with the raised end. Any ideas?

Was wondering about one of those drop saw type mounts for the angle grinder but would need to make up a stop to get an even depth of grind on the main surface and see if the shoulder of the wheel would form the rising tip.

Gudgeons might do a good roughing gouge but the profile of the flute might not do too well for a bowl gouge.

Ok, you machinist types are beyond me now... Can you post a link to a site where I can read more about the various style tips?

Cam

Cam there's a link in one of my posts above to the Berger site.

Do a google on Oland tools. It's basically a scraper shaped from rod with a round nose and a steepish bevel. On medium woods with a good burr I'm told you can rub the bevel and cut with it. Vic Wood used to do this with a wide 'scraper' when shaping the wings of his big 'bowls'.

If you are determined to use CA for a set screw, get "black CA", it is flexible, compared to the brittle stuff we generally use. http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/11610

Next step is to shape the Berger style tip with the raised end. Any ideas?

Ern,

As I have a 6x3/4" grinding wheel it was not to hard. I held the tool steel at 45' to the wheel and ground a groove in the side of the tool bit about 3mm deep the full width of the wheel . Leaving the chararistic pip at the end. Will try and get some pics to illustrate what I mean.

I agree with the gudgeon pin comment and most likely the wear characterictics would be bad.

hughie

Hi Gil,

thanks; that matches the description of the stuff I was talking about.

I'm told that a CA bond can be broken if you heat it up; so that if correct gives the replacement option. I decided not to use set screws since too much more gear has to be bought, and my bench press isn't the best.

Thanks Hughie ... my wheels are an inch wide so that's a bit much. Maybe an alternative is a quality small cylindrical grind wheel mounted in the chuck on the lathe, with a flat table underneath (which I have).

btw, found the best option for knocking some diam. off the mounting rods was a belt sander in a cradle.

Well here's the first effort at a Berger shaped tip.

Used a metal cut-off wheel in the Triton saw bench to cut the 'trench'. Set depth at half the tip diameter - that was a bit too deep.

Shaped the rising tip with a small grind wheel in a Jacob's chuck on the lathe, resting the tip on a flat top rest I use for hollowing. That was slow going and hard to get accurate. You can see from the photo a remaining mark from the cut-off wheel.

The shoulder of the mounting rod may prove to be too wide, and certainly the tip of the bit needs a bit of reducing with a better arc on the 'near side' edge.

The shockproof CA needs 48 hours to cure so no road test as yet.

It would have been a lot easier just to buy a tip but not as much fun

Keen to hear how it goes...

Seconded! A blow by blow account preferred, an overall summary is acceptable. Barely. Having never used a berger style tip of any sort, the whole thing has me wondering...

The tool's looking good, especially considering the scale you're working in. I assume the tip is recesed into the handle? How far?

Thanks Skew. Will post road test results as soon as I can. Never used one like it before myself! But did have a chance once to work on an enclosed form with Kelton hollowers. Hard work and took more skill than I had.

Tip sunk into shaft 35mm. Should be a b*gger to get out ;-}

Apparently the only real point of the raised tip is to help eject chips.