Universal Cutter Grinder Malfunction?

[PabloMack]

I recently purchased a Suying U3 Universal Cutter Grinder and the user manual is next to useless. I think it is a Deckel clone. I have watched a number of YouTube videos and have come to the conclusion that my unit has some defects/deficiencies. It came with three or four attachments and the main one is for sharpening end mill bits. The tube that accepts collets turns a full 360° (see photo). There is a 3-position lever (middle of photo 1) that is supposed to ① allow free rotation ② limit rotation to 180° ③ lock to current position. The lever on my unit, when in ③ has the same behavior as position ②. The end of the tube (photo 2) where the draw wheel attaches to the collet has a nut on the end where you can, apparently, remove the knurled dials with the angle guage and take the thing appart. It would require a special kind of spanner wrench with four points of attachment. What are these called and where could I get an inexpensive one? The four slots for accommodating the jaws are 32mm apart. If I can't fix the lever's operation, I may be able to drill a hole in the cylinder and use one of those adjustable handle locks that are used elsewhere on the machine for locking various things in place.

 

[markba633csi]

You may have to make a wrench for that nut- some folks take a piece of pipe of the correct diameter and file the end to form 4 lugs
then drill a hole thru the other end to pass a screwdriver as a handle
-Mark

 

[C-Bag]

I have a U2 and use the dial and the current position lock to lock to the number of degrees for the cutter visually. Because the dial can be set wherever you want i have to be sure I am on a place where the holes I need are available. I zero my first cut with the hole on the dial, then run through the angles. Mine will do 1,2,3,4 or 6 flute depending on the inside holes it’s aligned with. I don’t know if that helps but I just thought I’d throw that out there as it was kinda confusing at first.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

you may need a castle nut socket like this type, to investigate

 

[PabloMack]

I started messing with it some more and noticed that the lever wasn't seating down very far when in the middle position which has the longest recess. After working it I got it to seat down and it locked. It seems to seat down at every 15 degrees beginning with 5° and then 20°, 35° etc. I think it just needs to be broken in or lubricated. But since it doesn't start at 0° then I would think that I have to remove the castle nut (as Ulma Doctor calls it) and zero it. Makes sense that the factory didn't bother to do it because it requires extra work and factory workers tend to be lazy and probably assume that everyone carries one of those wrenches around in their back pocket.

EBay shows several castle nut sockets that are designated as 24/32 which I presume means ID/OD but not sure. Is anyone sure about what the numbers mean?

Thanks to everyone for the advice and suggestions.

 

[C-Bag]

If you look, the big black knurled knob on the back of the dial. Not the one that holds the collet. Hold the knurled part of the dial and unscrew the black knob, this is what locks the dial in place. Once it comes free you can spin the dial to zero it anywhere you want. Lock the 3 way lever, loosen the knob, zero the dial, lock the knob, then pull the 3 way lever and run it through the degrees you need for the cutter and see if there is a hole for the three way to lock into. If not lock to another hole and re zero and run it through again. I mostly do 4 flute end mills so mine is already set up for 90 deg.

 

[PabloMack]

I see no black knob on the back of the dial. But I do have two knurled silver-colored wheels that are adjacent to each other. See Photo #1 in my original post. The wheel that is next to the dial is labelled A and the smaller one behind it is labelled B. I seem to remember a video where someone turned B relative to A and was able to do something like you just described. But mine are tightly joined together and they only turn as a unit. Perhaps I should use a pair of channel locks with rags to keep from marring them to screw them apart?

 

[C-Bag]

Sorry, I didn’t take a close look at the pics. Yes, the back one should loosen normally ( lefty loosey)to allow the dial to be adjusted. I discovered all this through messing with everything. Like you said, the manual is worthless.

 

[PabloMack]

I put a pair of channel locks (I only have one) on the smaller wheel, locked it using the lever middle position, held the body in one hand and gave it a turn with the other and it came loose. Not as bad a struggle as I was expecting. So I guess it is all in working order. I suppose that this device only locks in the 24 positions which are 360° ÷ 15° = 24 positions. In other words, no way to lock it at, say, 7° relative to the 0° stop.

 

[C-Bag]

why would you want 7deg out of curiosity.