are dovetails a pain to cut?

PurpLev said:
I'd go one step further and saw most of the material off as close to the final line, then finish off with the dovetail cutter, the dovetailed cuts usually have a large bulk of material to remove between the tails, faster and easier with a saw than with a mill...don't ask me how I know :whistle:
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Sawing will get rid of the bulk quickly. Plus, you can use the bulk pieces to make other small projects.

I utterly love making chips, but I just hate wasting material.:))
 
i milled out the entire center down .005 below the height of the dovetail. i'm saying i'm going to use a slitting saw to remove most of the beveled part also. after making 3 of these tool holders the $100 bucks each isnt looking so high. i'm going to wait for the carbide insert one i ordered before i do any more after these 3
steve
 
jgedde said:
Sharon you got me thinking... I seem to remember you're a fellow woodworker. Did you ever consider or try cutting dovetails for drawers/boxes with a mill?

John
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oh god no... that would take FOREVER. I handcut my dovetails for boxes - way faster than any router/jig setup. (unless you are trying to batch 100 drawers...)
 
yes etard i'm spoiled
i had to hand write the code to cut the dovetails, but it only took about an hour to write, mostly pasting in the same move . i think when i am done i'll post the dimensions drawings and g-code for the other cnc users after i make them look like something that would make sense to others.
the 1" 2 insert endmill ripped the center out like butter, i thought this was going to be easy after seeing that. these will be easy to make once i figure out what i'm doing better. I'm no machinist so i have to learn the hard way. so far all i'll have to do is resharped 2 cutters so no big loss.
the last cutter still cuts like new so i'm on the right track now. only 1 more dovetail to do. as far as clearing the chips there are no chips i had to catch the fluid in a clean rag to see what they look like. the part is so flooded you cant see it or the cutter. when i shut down there are no chips on the vise.
steve
 
another trick is to use a keyway cutter first. It will take the load off of the tips of the dove tail cutter for the bulk of the cut.
 
The parts that I will be making, if I were to do a dovetail instead of doing a drill and insert of a rod. The male part of the dovetail would have to be cut in SS, while the female of the dovetail would be in aluminum. And it would be very small to boot. We're talking about 1/8th dovetail cutters.
 
this has been a learning experience for me in economics as well as machining
these hss cutters i bought 5 for $85 are not impressing me at all i'm on cutter 4 now and running so slow
so i ordered a dorian 2 insert dovetail cutter and inserts for roughing in the future. i know this cutter is small but as a tool to remove material fast to get to a rough size it is the correct angle and will work better than endmills, key cutters and saw. at least thats the plan.
the hss cutters will be for final pass only
steve

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after thinking about this for a minute i'm concidering it possible these cutters are 1/2 shank 1" 60 degree 10 flute hss "woodworking" cutters posted in metal working tooling. there is no brand on them only size.
steve
 
I used a slitting saw after square milling the bulk of the material away and then finished with a carbide router bit at a very low RPM.

tool holders.JPG
 
It's funny, I had seen somewhere else about using carbide router bits, I went to the local Home Depot, which used to have tons of them.. Ha, now it is hard to find any router bits there at all!

Doc
 
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