Anyone made there own dovetail cutter?

8ntsane

8ntsane

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Hello Guys.
Seems like it would be a good project for the HSM
I have seen a few in the past, but cant seem to find them searching the net.

The dovetail cutter Im talkin about used the carbide inserts.
I cant remember if they used one insert, or two. The dovetail cutters ive seen cost a few bucks, and look a little fragile to me, espesially the outer tips.

Being able to cut your own dovetails would be nice. Even if it was just used for those one of special tool blocks for the QCTP.

Anyone built there own, or have detailed plans ;D

Paul 8)
 
I built one -- no plans... one day I managed to pretty well fry my import cutter before I had finished the project, and I really wanted to finish it up! I had seen the inserted kind in the catalogs and heard of guys building them, so, off to the scrap bin.

What I come up with is almost identical to Bob Warfields at CNCnotebook, in method of construction and use of the same cutter - because that was what I had ;). That one allowed me to finish that job, but was a bit crude from its "hurry up" procedure. I later went back and took a bit more care in construction and getting angles right and its performed well now on 2-3 projects.
 
Thanks Guys
Yes it was Bobs site I had seen it on. Its been a while since being there, the old brain getting foggy.

Pacer
In your opinion, did your home built job perform as well as the store bought? I can see now that its a single insert, and Ive seen the others and they are multi flute.. I would imagine the single insert type would hammer some, just like a fly cutter.

Just wondering if its a worth while tool to build, and does it produce a decent finish. Or, is the single insert job best as a roughing tool, and use the store bought tool for finishing cuts?

Thanks
Paul
 
Paul,

did your home built job perform as well as the store bought?
Click to expand...

I dont think I can give a definitive answer to finish, I've only did a couple jobs and they were on 'unknownium' from the scrap yard and it was acceptable to me. It does hammer a bit, but I guess I use a fly cutter so much, I wasnt paying much attention. Youre probably thinking "aint that hard on the carbide, and make it chip/break?" and, I guess thats a valid point. But as I said, I've used those cheap brazed tip lathe bits to fly cut with and never had any real problem, and didnt with the dovetail the little bit I used it, I was taking pretty small cuts, maybe .010-012.

use the store bought tool for finishing cuts?
Click to expand...

Actually, I did do just that, changed over to the new 'sto-bought' dovetail and finished up. As you said, they look awfully fragile to me, and I have toasted 2 of them now, so if I can limit the using of mine with a cheap shop made roughing cutter ...
 
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