Ultra-Small Boring Head

[Bill Gruby]

Thread arbor goes in the lathe chuck -- Disc arbor goes in the Tailstock Drill Chuck.

"Billy G"

[Bill Gruby]

Screw is held fast in the thread arbor while the head is held in position in the Disc and allowed to move freely.

"Billy G"

[Bill Gruby]

There are two ways to cut the groove. #1 is with a 1/16 cut-off blade. This is the easiest way for a newbie. Now as for myself I use a 3/32 sq. jewelers file with the lathe running at slow speed. Only you can say how you wish to do this operation.

Common sense prevails here. You are filing against the rotation of the part. I do it this way because of the minimal amount of stock removal.(.030) I do not stand in line with the file. It works even more to the advantage of a lefty. Minimal downward pressure is put on the file. It removes quickly.

One more time, use Common Sense. If you don't think you can do it, use the cut-off method.

"Billy G"

[Bill Gruby]

The final product. I filed this one way deep to show how it is done. This would be .080 for a good part.

"Billy G"

[PixMan]

Count me among those who would have done it the other way Bill.

I would have closed most of the threads in a collet and used my 1.5mm wide parting/grooving insert tool. Can I do it with a file? Yes. I just feel more comfortable using carbide tooling in what can be fairly hard steel. In fact, thanks for sharing that because it really wouldn't have occured to me to file it down. Nice to know there's other ways to do something like that.

[Bill Gruby]

I know the uncomfortable things all too well Ken. That is why I say if you do not feel at ease with this operation use the cut-off method. My Apprentice Mentor uses to reverse the spindle when filing while holding the file backwards. He did this so that if the file caught it would pull it away from him. I could never get used to the pull on the file so I do it this way. The main thing to remember is to run the dpindle slow.

"Billy G"

[Highpower]

(01-27-2013, 02:16 PM)Bill Gruby Wrote: Screw is held fast in the thread arbor while the head is held in position in the Disc and allowed to move freely.



"Billy G"

OK, that's one I'm going to have to remember. Too cool!

[Bill Gruby]

Just make the hole slightly larger than the bolt head and you will not have to worry about the tool pushing the work away. This is Old School Technology come full circle Willie.

"Billy G"

[Highpower]

Old or new, if it works - it works. That little tidbit would have saved me some grief in the past had I known about it. But better to learn too late than not at all.

[Mayhem]

Yep - I'll be storing that one for sure. Thanks Bill.