Best centre finder

[Rickabilly]

As a sister thread to "Best Edge Finder"

I have a query, does anyone have a gadget for centering horizontal milling cutters on shafts, when for example you need to cut gear teeth or keyways, I have numerous methods, but no gadgets, in the best edge finder thread there must be a half dozen doo hickeys for that job so why not for this one.

Incidentally my "Go To" method for this job is a square on the milling table with the blade resting on the side of the shaft and then using the tail depth measuring bit of a vernier caliper or depth micrometers to locate the cutter in the right spot but while it works it is a hassle, and sometimes the rest of the machine gets in the way.

Best regards
Rick

PS, don't limit this to horizontal cutters, any centre finders are welcome on this thread

[SnailPowered]

Hahahah, I answered my own question. I think I was tired. Can't wait to see some nifty gadgets!!

[stevec]

Rick, I would normally bring a woodruff cutter down till it touched the top (OD) on the end of a shaft, lock the quill, back off horizontally and then raise the knee by the radius of the shaft plus half the width of the cutter.
I've done the same with a gear cutter having measured the width (flat to flat) of the sides of the cutter.
It seems clear to me can I muddy it up fiurther for you?

[Rickabilly]

Hello Steve, I see what you are saying, in fact it's a lot like the method I set out above and yes it certainly works, but not always, if for example you are using a 2" cutter on a one inch arbour and you need to centre it on a three inch shaft,it's just not possible to centre by this method. In another case you might not be able to guarantee that the centre of the cutter form coincides with the centreline of the cutter, new cutters are fine as are commercially produced cutters but quite often we use resharpened or home made cutters.

If no-one comes up with a solution I have decided to design one

Regards
Rick

[Mayhem]

(08-29-2012, 09:53 PM)Rickabilly Wrote: ...If no-one comes up with a solution I have decided to design one...

I'm sure you will have no shortage on people willing to beta test for you!