Folder Nail Nick Cutter

[lickskilletlab]

Can anyone post images of a fly cutter tool bit with the proper grind for cutting nail nick ? Multiple angle images please. Thanks

 

[knarfeng]

Howdy and welcome to BladeForums!
There are many forums here. Among them is the Knifemakers's shop talk forum. Let's move this question there so that you get the best answers.

 

[Cubane]

Here is how I go about using them. It has a picture showing the nail nick and how the cutter bit sits in the tool holder. The angle that is one will influence how the tool bit is ground.

http://www.akg.org.au/tutorials/25-nail-nicks

For actually grinding them.. I have photos showing with a blank tool

This is the cutting edge of the tool. The curved part is the bottom part of the nail nick cut out and the flatter bit the top. The more acute the angle of the point the thinner the nail nick will be.

The top view shows the relief behind the cutting edge so it will spin around in the mill without the back edge going into the knife blade.. You only want the cutting edge touching the steel.

The back edge follows the front it is just relieved a bit further back

How I grind them is like this

There is already an angle on the tool bit so I just round that out as the first step

Then I put in the top edge. I like this to be close to parallel to the table of the mill when it is all mounted up. That way I get a flatter curve along the top of my nail nick compared to the bottom.

After I have the profile set I just follow the profile whilst holding the tool bit at an angle for the relief. I do that for both the bottom and top edges.

Hope that helps,
Alistair

 

[lickskilletlab]

Thanks so much! That is what I needed.

 

[bdcoffey]

Thanks for posting these details Alistair! I just got a fly cutter and this post is great.
-Brian

 

[Cubane]

No worries

 

[stezann]

Great explanation, very useful thread, thanks

 

[Ken H>]

I've cut a few nail nicks with a flycutter, and Alistair sure has GREAT detailed instructions. I bookmarked his site for other good tutorials.

Thanks for posting such GREAT instructions.

Ken H>

 

[Ken H>]

Alistair: BTW, what size bit are you using? 1/4" or would larger be better?

You mention a "as slow as mill can go" RPM - is this 100 RPM? less?

Thank you for a GREAT post.

Ken H>

Update: I just finished cutting a nail nick - I followed pictures to grind the fly cutter, then first ran mill at 100 RPM, with about .003" feed, then stop for a few rounds, then another .003" feed. Seemed to be cutting OK, but decided to move up to 300 RPM, then a very slow feed of .001" slowly and it cut pretty good. I like the way the nail nick turned out.

Thank you again for the pics and advice on using a fly cutter for a nail nick.

Ken H>

 

[stezann]

aaah, how i would like to have a mill!!! cutoff dremel disks dressed at 45° for my sloppy nicks up today :barf:

 

[Don Hanson III]

aaah, how i would like to have a mill!!! cutoff dremel disks dressed at 45° for my sloppy nicks up today :barf:

Mill works good, but I did hundreds of nicks with a flex shaft hand piece & cut off disks. These were done with a cut off disk freehand.