Lever Cap Screws for Randy Nelson

[Johnny Kleso]

Randy had asked me a while back to make him some infill lever cap screws and rhese are the second batch he ask for..

5/16"-18 Thread
304 SS and Yellow Brass



Enjoy

[Bob Noles]

Johnny,

I can see why he keeps coming back for more..... those are excellent!

[Bill Houghton]

Or is it a screw cap?

Purty purty.

[Raney Nelson]

Oops - just saw these Johnny - WOW!!!! Those are drop-dead gorgeous! So glad you were able to grind the tooling for the SS saracens cap. Those are even prettier than the last set!.

You ARE the man

(PS - it's Raney, ya silly man )

[Johnny Kleso]

Darn PO just returned package today 5th and is going out with a new label..

I printed lable at 11:00 PM online and label is only good for that day it seems...

I should have changed shipping date to the 3th not the 2nd..

They fear a bomber will do somthing to envelope I was told..

Thats the GOV. they think a bomber is dumb enough to print a lable online and not just use stamps that have no experition date or digital trail...

[Ryan Cathey]

Hey Johnny,

Did you just grind a tool out of high speed for the profile on the top or do you have some super secret way of doing that? I'd like to make one or two of those before I get out of my machining class. Thanks!

-Ryan C.

[Johnny Kleso]

Ryan,
The tool was a 3/8" Sq. bit, you need to grind a lot of clearance under the tool so it doesnt rub the work..

I ground the angle by eye and added a raidus to the end of the bit..

The raidus at top of the point on the screw I did with a file..

Its them sanded, scothbrited and steel wooled..

I work the tool on the cross slide back and fouth them deeper..
If the whole tool profile is cutting it chatters..

The point is 1/8" above the diameter, you want it to have about 3/16"-1/4" flat on top of the point before you file the raidus..

These srews are called a Scarsen's Cap, The Scarsen's apposed The Crusaders in the Holy Wars...

[Ryan Cathey]

Cool, I figured it was something like that. They should make carbide tools with that shape (they might already make 'em...). I hate grinding tools.

[Alan DuBoff]

Grinding is not a lot of fun, for certain, but if you want to be a machinist you had better learn how to grind your tools, if for nothing else but to better understand cutting edges. My $0.02.

You can have all the machines in the world, but if you can't use them, you have nothing.

[Johnny Kleso]

Whats crazy is I was a machinist for 35+ years not one place had a good tool rest on the grinders..

They just where a flat rest that you could not adjust to an angle..

We did have carbide grinders with a tool rest but you would have to use a surface grinder and a vise and then finish it off by hand or grind the whole tool by hand with out a rest

I am like in heaven now with a 10" grinder and two tool rests I made..

[Alan DuBoff]

Johnny,

Would love to see what your rest looks like, I have been doing mine freehand... I would like to take a class at the local community college, they go over tool grinding and proper tool selection. I spent a couple weekend grinding some tools, and they took longer than I thought...pays to know how to do it when you need a tool for a specific task though.

I've been using a small hand stone to sharpen the top edge.

I've seen a grinding table a while ago that was about $180 that looks very nice for tool grinding. I have a lot to learn about metalworking...would like to make my own if possible though...

[Johnny Kleso]

THis is a good site for reference material
http://littlemachineshop.com/Reference/RakeRelief.php

Here are the pics of the tools rests I made




I can slide the bottom section out for grinding lathe tools but I need to make V stop still..

[Alan DuBoff]

Johnny,

Those are very nice. I would like to make a couple rests for my grinder like that. The Little Machine Shop is a good resource, I have bought a few things from Chris, he's a nice guy.

There's another grinding document on the Sherline site, that isn't too bad. I can use any help I can get!

Ryan,

You might consider some rests like that for a project while your in school, those would be useful for a lot of grinding!

FWIW, when I go over to a friends shop to work, he's hand me a tool bit and say, "go grind that so we can use it". I'll be honest, the first couple times he told me that I wasn't even clear on how to grind the tool...

I ended up spending some time with the "How To Run a Lathe" book that was published by South Bend. There's a lot of the videos on Steve Wells' site, SBL Workshop from that book as well, in a series that was published in the 50s.

[Ryan Cathey]

Don't get me wrong guys, I know how to grind...I just don't like it.

But believe you me, once I get out of this state funded school and start buying my own tooling I think that high-speed will beat out carbide (budget wise lol).

Quick question, does anyone have the HF mill and/or lathe? What do you think of it?

[Alan DuBoff]

Ryan,

HF sells a lot of mills and lathes, one of the common is the mini-mill (X2), with a cousin lathe (mini-lathe). I have one of those in the Grizzly flavor.

There is also a slightly smaller version known as the micro-mill and micro-lathe also, I believe. If you find a good deal on one, they are capable of doing toolmaking, for certain.

The larger ones are quite a bit better, so chances are you might be referring to one of the more robost HF mills/lathes.

With that said, they are capable of toolmaking, most certainly.

My recommendation is to look for used machinery on craigslist, if you happen to find one at a good price, consider it, but I'd look for something better as you will find much better stuff on craigslist at xlnt prices. I bought mine for $200 on craigslist, and probably have $200 to do a couple mods, probably $100 more in cheap chinese machinist tools, some of which I've given away to people starting out.

I don't have a mini-lathe, but know a person that does and makes xlnt stuff with it, tooling for it, and similar. I have an old South Bend 9A that I'm learning how to use...keep your eyes open, you can find old lathes at great prices...if you can afford the space, the bench top South Bends are one of the better ones to look for, and Logans also, those are pretty nice. Any of them, even the mini-lathe or mini-mill, will lend well to toolmaking.