Shop Made Diamond Tool Sharpener

[randyc]

I have a baldor carbide grinder. It is rated at 3450 rpm with 6" wheels. I have a diamond wheel on one side and a silicon carbide on the other. It is a great machine for grinding. I think both of yours will work just great as a final finishing machine, something the baldor is not. After all, lots of folks including myself, use diamond hand laps for a final finish and I know my arm doesn't generate a high sfpm....

Darrell, that sort of validates the use of the (free and therefore desirable) 3000 RPM motor and 4 inch wheel that I have. Ulma Doctor's application, at least as I understand it, is fine finishing while my own usage sounds more like yours. I need to rough-shape carbide tools maybe refine with a green wheel but always hand-lapping with a diamond tool as the final step.

I've been roughing with the green wheel before lapping but it takes some time and throws off a lot of debris Thanks for your reply and I'm hoping that Ulma Doctor will also put in a word - I may have wrongly inferred how he's using his grinder.

 

[18w]

Randy, I think you will like your setup just fine. You are right, those green wheels shed a fair bit of grit. The only reason I keep one on one side is it can be dressed for grinding a radius. Otherwise I would have two different grit diamond wheels, one on each side.

Darrell

 

[Ulma Doctor]

thanks for reading guys,
i was able to put in some more work on the sharpener this morning.
i took a couple snapshots and made a short video to go along with it.
enjoy!


i have the cast aluminum slab that was reclaimed from a piece of meat portioning equipment. the casting was broken by a careless operator and left 2 nubs that you see rising above the casting.
the 1956 Atlas MFC Horizontal mill got the shoulder tap to work on this job.
i like to hear the little mill work, and she does a pretty dang good job


the aluminum casting has more junk in it than Hong Kong Harbor, but it will suffice for the purpose.
the endmill cut easily and quickly , i was taking .035" cuts very easily.


here's a look at the next to the last roughing pass.

and the short video of the mill in operation!

 

[Ulma Doctor]

. I don't see any flaking on it?

Here ya go chips&more,





just for you!!!
as you can tell it's not precision scraped, but it is Flaked!!!

oil flaking is easy in aluminum!!!

 

[chips&more]

Here ya go chips&more,





just for you!!!
as you can tell it's not precision scraped, but it is Flaked!!!

oil flaking is easy in aluminum!!!

That’s more like it! Don’t let it happen again! PS: wish I could do that!

 

[Ulma Doctor]

i don't have any magical powers.
you live close enough and i could show you how!
put aside a Saturday or Sunday and drive over the Altamont!
shoot me a PM if you're interested!

 

[Ulma Doctor]

i got some more done on the sharpener, a few pictures





i used 3- 3/8-16 x 5" hunks of all-thread and a bunch of nuts and washers to mount the platen to the baseplate.



The Platen is parallel to the baseplate, the motor is tilted to 3*, the gap from platen to wheel will be around .035".
both the platen and the motor are adjustable for other angles should the need arise.




i still need to attach the motor to the base and permanently wire the footswitch in.
i'll need to contemplate an easy off mount for the motor for when wheel changes are necessary......






thanks for reading the saga, there's more to come!!!

 

[Ulma Doctor]

well, i finally got the build together and fully tested and set to my specifications.
i chose a simple mount consisting of some 1/4"x 1" x 6" aluminum that i drilled for attachment with 4 screws to the baseplate.
here's a picture of the angle cube referencing the shaft angle in relation to the baseplate, the platen is parallel to the baseplate.

the reading is 3.00*


heres a picture of the platen zero'd in, sorry for the blurr



heres a video of the contraption in use!

thanks for reading, watching and commenting!
it was a lot of fun to make and it really works!

i hope others will take my example and make something they want or need for the shop, in the shop!

 

[brav65]

Hey Mike, first of thanks for sharing... as usual absolutely awesome project. I wish we were neighbors as I would love to be a fly on the wall as you do what you do. Second, what is your relationship with Windex? You remind me of the guy from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. You seem to use it for everything. Does Windex have some special properties I am unaware of?

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Thanks for commenting Brooks!
I wish we were neighbors too, we'd sure have a lot of fun and PO the neighbors for sure!!!
Hopefully my threads give the impression of being there, i guess it's the next best thing!

My relationship with windex is strictly platonic....

It's a very inexpensive cutting agent.
I learned of it's value from Richard King's scraping class,
we used windex on our work when we were stoning the surface between scraping cycles.
you'd simply brush off the chips and give a couple squirts of windex, stone the area and wipe dry.
then another blue up on the surface plate for the next cycle.
it's cheap and effective.
Care should be taken to dry off the remnants after use, it may rust iron bearing pieces

I have used dollar store window cleaner for cleaning the bores and chambers of my war relic rifles after shooting corrosive primers.
the ammonia/water ratio in the cheap window cleaner neutralizes the corrosive salts left behind when the primer in the shell goes bang.
after the treatment of a patch with the cheap stuff, i'll run it down the bore until it comes back 90% clean, then i'll break down the bolt and treat the firing pin and bolt face with a patch soaked in the cheap window cleaner.
i'd then clean the rifle as normal and re-oil for storage.
corrosive ammo will literally eat your firearms if given half a chance!

thanks for reading!!!