Which of these options would be better?

Couldn’t you do that in a drill press with the proper size mill instead of a drill?
 
If you are going to go through the trouble of making a holder for your Dremel, I’d make it work on your lathe tool post. all of the operations you need for that pin could be done from that machine.


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C-Bag said:
Couldn’t you do that in a drill press with the proper size mill instead of a drill?
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Not sure I understand. I need to grind off some M2. And make a 0.040" wide slot. Probably using an abrasive disk. Don't have any mills that small!

I could use a drill press and abrasive disk, and crummy HF xy table. So far that seems to be a somewhat viable option (as long as I don't press too hard against the spindle!) Probably more than good enough.
 
vtcnc said:
If you are going to go through the trouble of making a holder for your Dremel, I’d make it work on your lathe tool post. all of the operations you need for that pin could be done from that machine.


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That makes sense. Have to add that to my (growing) list of machining projects. Was originally trying to do this without breaking down my milling setup. (Found out my end mill was too short for what I was trying to do. Oops.) If I abandon the setup, then making this holder gets a lot easier. Probably overconstrained the problem. Us beginners fall into that trap sometimes.
 
For a slot like that remember that an abrasive cut off disk WILL leave a radiused bottom of the slot.
Best would be a slitting saw and arbor. You could then set it up in the DP with the XY table and end up with a perfect sized and shaped slot.
As you said keep the pressure light so as to not deflect the DP spindle. DP spindles are not made to hold side loads well.
 
Can one use a HSS saw to cut HSS (M2)? I wouldn't invest in a carbide blade and put it on my drill press. The DP runout is pretty bad. Zero confidence that the carbide blade would survive my DP. Going to try the abrasive disk to get by. I'll try it this afternoon.
 
If your M2 is not already hardened it should work. The cutter will/should be hardened. If your M2 is already hardened then it will likely not cut it.

If you need to use the abrasive wheel, one trick is get the slot close, then touch the edge of the abrasive disk to a dressing stone or wheel to square it up and then just clean out the corners with the squared up cutoff. It still will not give sharp corners as the corners of the cutoff will break down FAST, but will be better than a round bottom.
 
There were (are) two Dremel nose threads sizes, one was I think 3/4" x 16 tpi and I forget the other one
 
Set everything up to try this. Kind of a wobbly disk, but ok. Started the cut a little at a time. Put a little cutting oil on the rod. Worked for a little while then it seemed to stop cutting. Then snap. Not the disk, not the rod, but the tiny screw holding the cutting disk sheared. My goodness, that's a small screw. I measure the major diameter at 0.0682". Doesn't seem to be metric, or I mismeasured it.

Discovered just now that my standard thread pitch gauge only goes down to 42 TPI. And skips 40 TPI, which is a standard pitch! ..., 38, 42, end.

Cut off disk appears to be glazed on edge and feels smooth. At first I thought maybe the disk rotated on the shaft and ground the screw off, but looking carefully at it under a magnifier, the screw sheared.

M1.8 is around 0.068" major diameter. Standard thread for a M1.8 should be 0.35 mm. I'll try that again. The piece is so small I have to hold it with a tweezers. Time to break out the stereo microscope. Can't hold the magnifier, and the tweezer and gauge at the same time!

I do have two more "arbors", although I don't have high hopes for them, they all have these tiny screws.
 
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Gosh, what am I thinking? I can make a small arbor for this. I could use a huge 2-56 screw for it! Or an M2.5 if it will fit.
 
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