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I made this tool and cutter grinder from an old "LONDON B" lathe(1940's)which I bought from a car boot sale for £10, there was no tailstock or saddle assy but luckily enough the leadscrew was present, I was a little apprehensive about doing this project as I didnt really want to cut up an old lathe which could have been restored, but I decided to do it and give the old girl a new form of life, I fabricated the motor raising unit from an old shaping machine, the motor(a 6"grinder)cost around £15 new, and the rest of the machine was made from scrap steel I had knocking around, the full machine was made for around £40, not bad to say that a purchased machine would cost around £800 plus.
this machine is not at the cutting edge of technology but it produces nice sharpe tools with pretty accurate angles to the cutting edges
the lathe bed in one piece, its a piece of scrap metal for now anyway.
then the bed is cut into two halves and the leadscrew is re-positioned, the headstock is removed (to be used for another project)and note the chalk line on the second half of the bed, this is where i cut the ways off, too be used for the saddle and to raise/lower the motor
the cross slide with the dovetails been machined in, and the cross slide carrier nut been chopped off the rear of the leadscrew,,,same pitch ect no need to make one up!
Heres the leadscrew and saddle carrier nut in position, theres no need for the nut to disengage from the leadscrew like the half nuts on a lathe, I'll have to keep this nut pretty well lubed, as its fixed by been spot welded to the holder, when there is sufficiant wear on the nut I will have to grind off the nut and turn it a little, I could have thought of maybe a better alternative to this set up but this was a quick way for solving this problem, the carrier nut is just a bit cut off the end of the leadscrew.
The base that the tool and cutter grinder bed is bolted to has to be fairly robust, I made this base from a piece of 10mm thick m/s plate, the apron was made from 2 x 10mm steel plates welded together, and 60 degree dovetails milled into the top, I have now made a new longer compound table out of mild steel, it has a 1/2" Tee slot in the centre of the table which gives more axis movement.
The tool carrier was made from 2"x 2" solid m/s, then bored out to 1.000" to accept the spindle which was bored out to morse taper 2 the odd looking dome on the top is to clamp down the hss lathe tools to be sharpened, the plunger knob at the rear is to give the divisions for a 2 or 4 fluted endmill/drill, this collar is drilled with 4 divisions, a number of these collars will be made with 3,6(ect)holes for simple dividing.
tests and adjustments!, everything has been lined up by a dial test indicator, it actually took a lot of lining up of the motor/grinding wheel to the bed and cross slides ect to get a good result. but its well worth that little extra care when doing the finer adjustments.
A horizontal milling cutter grinding accessory had to be complimented to the machine, Ive a number of these cutters which will all need to be kept sharpe.
nearly done and dusted!
between centres attachment for sharpening the flutes of endmills, drills,reamers, attachment is not finished yet and requires a little more thought in the design
"Endmill cutting relief grinding tool"
I found that when sharpening some endmills, I got a small peak in the centre, this made the tool very unstable and gave a horrible finish to the work.
The cutting disc is from a 9" andle grinder and I have gauged it at 1.6mm thick, it has been worn down to approx 6" in diam, and a center holder made from brass to run it true on the grinder,
the tool rest is made from 12mm x 50mm x 150mm bms,(bright mild steel) then welded onto the original tool rest.
the guard has been removed so you can see the set up, the cutting disc runs at 3000 rpm and the cutting forces are applied to the outer edge only, this falls into the safety margins for the use of this cutting disc.
I dont know why but I feel safer when the rest surounds the cutting disc (picture).
the rest was originally going to be for a 6" x 7/8" green stone, hence the other square milled into the rest.
introduce the endmill at approx 45 deg. and try to keep a tad away from the front cutting edges
this is the finished relief
some lathe accessories you may find interesting,
please feel free to copy these photos, this site is designed for ideas which may be of use to you,
please remember that if you wish to have a go and make any of these projects then include your own ideas aswell, you may well get a better result!
A depth guage for an accurate cut, it is not designed to stop the saddle under power, its designed to do a measured cut and control by manually stopping the saddle at the anvil of the mic
Anyone who owns a Harrison knows that there is no device to hold the chuck keys, there is a large space on the top of the headstock housing where the speed chart is, I dont like putting any tools on there because I like to get to the clutch release arm in a panic, plus the chart is protected by a perspex cover and is prone to be scratched.
"toolpost grinder"
This was not built in any way to be a precision tool
Toolpost grinder
This is a clarke woodworking router, cost £30 from Machine mart.
You get all that is needed in the box, except for the mild steel toolpost holder which you need to fab up your self, you even get the grinding wheels! although the router runs too fast for drilling its superb for those little grinding in the lathe jobs ie small flats ect, the motor unit seperates from the base holder and can be spun at 180 deg for x and y feed, grinder runs at 8000-30,000 rpm plenty fast enough for grinding, keep all the spare bits like springs, handles and such for those other little "need to do" projects.
I have a little precision drill chuck that fits into the collet I tried to drill a piece of stock but it ran the end off the drill (too fast) spare grinding wheels for this model can be bought from machine mart for a few squids,
I put one of the router handles to use on the lathe light.
note the toolpost grinder is now set up for operation, the tool carrier has been revolved around but still fits the grinder,
obviously this is not intended to be a precision grinder.
Myford Super 7 Lathe
