More milling questions and even a knife Pic!

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
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Ok I added a picture of a knife I am working on to show that all this machining stuff will EVENTUALLY lead to knifemaking. ;)

My questions are:

1) Can you drill and ream using collets instead of the drill chuck? It would solve a lot of problems associated with not having a knee to raise and lower on the mill.
2) How much smaller than the size of your collet can you go. I mean to still hold the bit securely and also not damage the collet?
3) Finally, I am milling a slot for HSS inserts for a filing guide. I was thinking about using JBweld to hold them in there but should I try a press fit also to be sure? (Notice I said try, it may not work out as planned and let's face it, it rarely does :( )

Thanks again for putting up with all the questions.

Patrice
 

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Collets are the ideal way to hold tooling. Doesn't get any more recuse than properly sized quality collets.

Depending on which size collet there isn't much room to go undersized maybe a few hundredth undersized at best. Check with the manufacture.

JBWeld is fine getting a press fit on Hardened HSS will be more of a chore than ts worth with modern adhesives.
 
I do all my drilling with collets, I just pic one that fits close and then tighten the _____ out of it. It will slip so make sure its tight. The smallest I can go is 3/32 but all the standard drills seem to fit a collet.

I think I would use a couple of set screws, jb weld will hold anything but you wont have much room for glue.
 
Thanks guys, collets it is then. You don't know how happy I am to hear that.
Gotta buy some more collets now.

Patrick, I was thinking of drilling some dimples in the bottom of the slots for the glue as well as having the ends being a little wider than the bit. I don't know if set screws wouldn't come loose with the repeated filing on the HSS bits.

Patrice
 
So how much $$ do you have in tooling? I was lucky I bought my mill second hand and it came with alot of tooling but I still bought alot more, seems to be never ending. I look forward to some more of your posts, I am learning how to use my mill in knife making as well and you ask the questions I have not got to yet. keep milling
 
I've stopped counting Patrick. Less traumatizing that way. ;)
Kidding aside I it is quite expensive. And I would love to buy all US made tooling but I just don't have the pesos for that. Most of the stuff I buy is imported. With time I hope to be able to upgrade some of it.

Thanks for the good words. I am glad that you get some use out of my posts. I worry sometimes that it may not be knifemaking oriented enough and will get on people's nerves.

Patrice
 
Most decent collets have the spec to which they were meant to hold etched on them.

For instance, some of the collets that I use at work. 1-2, 2-3,3-4, etc....

1-2mm diameters can be held securely with no adverse affects on the collet or tool.
 
I made a filing guide with carbide inserts. Cut a slot about .030 less than the carbide thickness. That lets the carbide be the highest flat surface. Also made sure the the carbide is set back a few thousandths from the inner surface(toward the blade), so it cannot scratch the blade. This also means that you can tighten on the blade as much as you want and not put pressure on the insert. I just used JB to hold them on. Has been working fine for about 2 years.
Chip Kunkle
 
Bhyde, those don't have anything on them except the actual size. Guess they are the cheap kind.

Kunklec, thanks for the pointers. I do have to order some carbide toolbits for this. All I have is HSS and I am worried that they won't last as long as carbide would.

Jim, you are an evil evil man. Like I don't have enough on "To Buy" list. ;)
Kidding aside those look very useful. And as an added bonus I would not have to reach on top of the mill each time I want to change the collet with my bad shoulder.

Thanks for the good words Robert. It's a work in progress and the handle looks a little bit weird but it still has a good feel in hand.

Thanks again guys.

Patrice
 
Patrice,

The life of the tooling has more to do with the way it is used than the material it is made from.

When I took Precision Machining in high school, our teacher made us learn how to grind bits from HSS blanks and then made us use those until he was comfortable giving us carbide. He knew we were all rookies and would be hard on the tooling.

Carbide is harder and more brittle than HSS tooling and as such is much more fragile. If you have an interrupted cut (cutting over a hole, across a weld, etc...) carbide can tend to chip and crack if you aren't careful. On the other hand, you will spend less time machining if you master the carbides because they allow you to cut with higher speeds and feeds.

Carbide will wear much better than HSS and thus last longer but usually, in inexperienced hands, carbide has a shorter life than HSS. Something as simple as accidentally dropping a cutter, which would only dull or roll the edges on HSS tooling, could chip the edge completely off carbide or even break the hole cutter in half in the case of solid carbide endmills.

What materials are you cutting?
 
Dillon, the bit is not actually cutting anything. It just serves as a guide when filing shoulders on a knife for a guard. Here is a pic that will explain it better than I can:

carbideguide.jpg


So do you think Carbide would be much better than HSS for this type of application?

Patrice
 
Patrice Lemée;7703716 said:
Dillon, the bit is not actually cutting anything. It just serves as a guide when filing shoulders on a knife for a guard. Here is a pic that will explain it better than I can:

carbideguide.jpg


So do you think Carbide would be much better than HSS for this type of application?

Patrice
Click to expand...
I have filing guides made out of both. With the carbide you can grind on the belt or disc right up to the shoulders and not worry about messing up the fixture. Ceramic won't hurt carbide but will grind hss. I'd use carbide, got mine from MSC.
 
Kunklec said:
I made a filing guide with carbide inserts. Cut a slot about .030 less than the carbide thickness. That lets the carbide be the highest flat surface. Also made sure the the carbide is set back a few thousandths from the inner surface(toward the blade), so it cannot scratch the blade. This also means that you can tighten on the blade as much as you want and not put pressure on the insert. I just used JB to hold them on. Has been working fine for about 2 years.
Chip Kunkle
Click to expand...

Thats almost exactly what I did. The carbide is great.
 
Patrice,

Sorry, I thought you were talking about buying some new tooling for milling.

For the filing guide, carbide will definitely be better.
 
Guys, can I ask what size are the carbide inserts on your filing guides. I want to buy some to make a few and I am trying to keep cost down.

Patrice
 
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