Engravig a scale ( cutter type?)

[ianjParticipant @ians]

Hi.

Can any one advise me on what type & supplier of an engraving cutter to use in my Emco mill ( max speed 2500 rpm) to engrave the graduations on the rotating work table on the Bonelle T& C grinder I'm building. The table is 3" in diameter leaded MS.

what Included angle of cutter? width & depth of graduations ?

Thank you.

Ian

Edited By ian j on 02/07/2014 08:22:04

[ianjParticipant @ians]

Engraving graduations on Bonelle T & C grinder rotating base

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi Ian,
These cutters may be what you are looking for.

Les.

[Gone AwayParticipant @goneaway]

I used cutters like these which were fine for my purposes on a similar job.

(There are numerous vendors selling them in several sizes)

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

That's a massive difference in price between the two suppliers!

I like to support local businesses wherever possible, but . . .

Geoff – Recovering, having spilled all the BA taps onto the floor. Aargh! ^*+# junk 'phone calls!

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

I use the Ebay engraving cutters on my little cnc mill. However I have made a bracket to take my Proxxon mini drill as an auxiliary high speed spindle (20,000 rpm). At 2500 rpm you will have to take the feed very slow as the cutters are very fragile. How do I know? – been there, broke the cutters!

Russell.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by OMG on 02/07/2014 15:39:21:

I used cutters like these which were fine for my purposes on a similar job.

(There are numerous vendors selling them in several sizes)

.

In their advert: Do you have any idea what "Tool Double End MPH" is supposed to mean ?

Thanks

MichaeG.

[Steven VineParticipant @stevenvine79904]

The seller is 144mph, and has MPH on the descriptions of the other stuff he is selling.

Steve

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Steven Vine on 02/07/2014 21:21:26:

The seller is 144mph, and has MPH on the descriptions of the other stuff he is selling.

Steve

.

Fair enough, Steve

I will continue being thick: …

Where does "Tool Double End" come into it ?

MichaelG.

.

P.S. Before anyone makes the obvious clever comment

… No; these have plain shanks, so that's a beginning and an end.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 02/07/2014 21:42:31

[Steven VineParticipant @stevenvine79904]

Hi Michael

Just a guess, I assume he means there is a cutting tip at either end of the tool, but the photo is not showing a tip at either end.

Steve

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, his English is better than our Chinese! I would guess you will get what is illustrated.

Tony

[Gone AwayParticipant @goneaway]

The actual ones I got were a couple of years ago from another vendor who's now gone – or changed names. As with most of this stuff from the Far East, there are many vendors selling identical products (probably from a single source …. maybe they band together to get a humongous-quantity price).

Often, these vendors seem to copy text/pictures from the ads of other vendors and it's quite possible that the "double-ended" bit was picked up in such plagiarism without the vendor understanding what it meant. Perhaps there are some listed for sale that are, in fact double-ended; I haven't looked.

Certainly the ones I got were single ended.

At the free shipping rate, they may (will) take several weeks to arrive of course so you need to be aware of that. They will undoubtedly show up described as "Gift" which I'm sure Customs in the UK, as here, cheerfully ignore on Far East packages.

Edited By OMG on 02/07/2014 22:41:05

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

OMG,

Thanks for the clarification. … I'm sure that you are right about the plagiarism …

At that price, they are certainly worth a try.

I just hope that the diameter is accurately stated [because, these days, so many advertisers claim that 1/8" and 3mm are the same]

By the way; I have been amazed, recently, by how promptly small parcels are arriving from China.

MichaelG.

[Nigel McBurney 1Participant @nigelmcburney1]

I have engraved many similar jobs on a Taylor Hobson engraver long ago during my aprenticeship, I think that 2,500 rpm is a little slow as you are only using the very tip of the cutter,use lubricant ,in those days lubrication was thin polishing oil like 3 in 1 ,nowadays the liquid Rocal is probably best. Most tedious job was a 21/2 inch micrometer drum in brass ,the index lines were easy ,about 8 thou thou deep,it was the numbers that were tricky ,they were mirror image as the micrometer was read via a mirror.

[Anonymous]

I would concur with Nigel on the spindle speed. I had no problems engraving with my Taylor Hobson engraver running at, I think, about 18000rpm. However, I had all sorts of trouble when using my CNC mill, running at a maximum of 5100rpm. Even at very low feedrates the single flute tapered engraving bits kept breaking. I ended up using a 4 flute 60° chamfering cutter. That did the job but wasn't perfect. As and when I need to do any more engraving, or even use small cutters, I will be buying a high speed spindle and VFD from ArcEuroTrade.

Regards,

Andrew

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

I bought 10 of the far-eastern carbide engraving bits to do the scales on my Harold Hall grinding rest.  I, too, broke a few, but the end result was to my satisfaction. They were cheap as chips and did the job. They didn't take an age to get here, either – about a fortnight, I think. At the price, I'd say get some, try them out on a piece of spare material, then if you don't like the result, send them to me! You can get an idea of the finish you can acheive if you look in my album. (I didn't get the smallest ones available, by the way.)

John

 

Edited By John Hinkley on 03/07/2014 10:45:18

[Gone AwayParticipant @goneaway]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 03/07/2014 08:02:36:

I just hope that the diameter is accurately stated [because, these days, so many advertisers claim that 1/8" and 3mm are the same]

By the way; I have been amazed, recently, by how promptly small parcels are arriving from China.

The ones I got did indeed measure 1/8" …. they were even labelled as "shank dia 3.175mm"

The parcels are certainly not speedy here (Canada). I placed two orders for cross-hair laser modules on May 10th. One order finally showed up a week ago. The other is still pending. Of course a lot, perhaps most, of this is delays in local processing (customs/post-office). This is not untypical of past orders.

[As an aside, this reminds me of a dodgy practice – I hesitate to say scam – I've come across. These vendors are paranoid about getting bad feedback. They tell you to contact them if you have any problem and they will fix it. Particularly, let them know if the shipment is not received in a stated time. Above all don't leave negative feedback.

If a parcel doesn't arrive in the stated time, you inform them and they say don't worry, have already shipped a replacement – no cost to you …. don't leave negative feedback. If you contact them in the succeeding few weeks, communications are quite good. They are all help and assistance. Then, suddenly, they disappear. The replacement doesn't show up and you decide to leave feedback stating the situation.

Surprise! You have just been run out of eBay's limiting period for leaving feedback. The replacement obviously never existed. Ditto for Paypal complaints, although if it's the kind of $2 or $3 item discussed here you might not want the hassle anyway.

This has only happened to me once – by far the majority of vendors are genuine in my experience and I certainly wouldn't stop using them on this account. I did find an eBay forum discussing the exact same practice though, so it's happened to others.

if it happens again, I plan to leave feedback (neutral perhaps) stating the situation and saying that the feedback will be changed if the replacement arrives within the eBay feedback window …. assuming I can fit that in to eBay's miserably small comment space. ]

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by OMG on 03/07/2014 15:13:06.

The ones I got did indeed measure 1/8" …. they were even labelled as "shank dia 3.175mm"

.

That's very encouraging, thanks.

As to Shipping from China, etc. …

I've just looked back at my recent purchases and some items have only taken 10 days to arrive.

Shipped half way round the world, at an all-inclusive price that's about half what our Post Office would charge me to post the same parcel to a local address.

MichaelG.

[thaiguzziParticipant @thaiguzzi]

Never used the mill and rotating cutters for graduated lines. As per GH Thomas et al, i only use the shaper (mostly) and the lathe (rarely) for all my graduated work.

Mike.

[BERT ASHTONParticipant @bertashton57372]

This is how I did my graduating, using the GHT graduating tool and

headstock dividing attachment.

Bert.

[BERT ASHTONParticipant @bertashton57372]

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I used an HSS 60 degree threading tool insert, 3/16 dia held stationary in a collet in the mill spindle and applied the cut by moving the table shaper fashion so the work moved across the tool. Feed I can't remember, probably depth of cut was about 0.2 mm. Work was held on mandrel in dividing head bolted to table.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Tony Pratt 1 on 02/07/2014 21:54:39:

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, his English is better than our Chinese! I would guess you will get what is illustrated.

Tony

.

Tony,

For info. … The [single ended] cutters arrived today

They look excellent, and the packet is labelled 3.175mm

So far, so good … but I didn't realise that Carbide was magnetic.

Still; I suppose I got what was illustrated.

MichaelG.

.

Edit: Just looked here

… and I might be about to embark on a rather steep learning curve 

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 17/07/2014 23:57:56

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Michael,

Tungsten carbide tools are formed from WC powder with a cobalt and/or nickel binder, both of which are magnetic.

Cheers,

Rod

Edit:  Doh!  Just followed the link.  Sorry to be repetitive.

Edited By Roderick Jenkins on 18/07/2014 08:56:17

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Rod,

Thanks anyway … that's my lesson learned for this week.

MichaelG.

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