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 Post subject: let's facet a drill bit
PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2017 4:04 am 
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Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:00 am
Posts: 1322
Location: Wylie Texas but in Alaska for a while
My daughter had her spinal stim trial, that did not go well, and she is recovering after it was taken out. That means that I have to spend time in the house, in case she needs something.
I probably should have gotten some faceting done, but instead I was working on an “Alaska saw mill” setup for a chain saw. I hope to get it done, so I can cut a walnut limb (big limb) 30 inches in diameter, and 8 foot long. I already took 2 other 8 foot sections to a saw mill, but this one is weights too much for my poor truck. SO I figured I would do up something to at least cut it in half…..
I also have a lot of trees that have been cut down to make into firewood. I figured I could use them to test the saw mill before I did the big walnut log.

ANYHOW I ended up drilling some holes in a 1 inch stainless bar as part of the project, and it chewed up the drill bits. If I were in Dallas, I would sharpen them on a drill sharpener I have setup…. So I started looking online, and came across several articles on the advantages of 4 and 6 FACET drill bits. They have flat facets. They are supposed to have several advantages, so I got to thinking. I have a facet machine, and some plated diamond laps that I got with the machine, how can I facet my drills.
I remembered I have an offset jig that came with my facet machine. So, all I needed was a way to hold the bits, and I could use the offset jig to accommodate the changes in diameter, and still keep the drill on the spindle axis.

I have some aluminum V dops that I was willing to sacrifice to the test. My first attempt was to bend the V dop 90 degrees. It failed; the offset was way too much.
So attempt 2. I filed half of the dop flat, and sacrificed a second alum dop and filed it in half as well.


To align the V with the dop. I super glued in a brass dop, and put the machine at 90 degrees. By placing the dop on the lap, it was half aligned. I superglued it in place, and rotated the index 90 degrees and adjusted the dop. More superglue. It took a few tries, but eventually I had it aligned. I put some magic marker on the brass dop and checked it 90 degrees apart.


The pieces ready to align.


Image


the pieces on the machine, aligned......

Image


Time for some thread and superglue to start to fix it. (If I were in Dallas, I would have used some brass and silver soldered it, but not there)


NOW, how to clamp it. I had a 6-32 socket screw ,but no normal nuts. I did have a single acorn nut. MMMMMM. I filed the end off of the acorn nut so the screw could go through. This actually worked out well, because the crown of the acorn nut gave me more area to hold the nut in place.

Some neversieze carefully on the threads, and on a ½ inch drill bit. Now for some more lashing. I basically lashed the drill down, then started with thread, superglue, and some Q-Bond powder (very nice stuff). Eventually I had a pretty good buildup of heavy nylon thread, Q-bond and superglue. If I were to do it again, I would use a 2 part epoxy and some of the composite material I have. BUT I was not sure it would work, and wanted something that was quick.

The nevesieze did the trick, and I was able to get the drill bit out without too much trouble. After a little cleanup I had a V dop, that would take up to a 1/2 inch drill an a way to clamp it in place.
So let’s try it…… I was able to successfully use the offset tool and could align the drill bit to the spindle axis. I used a 90 degree setup block, and could rotate the drill 360 and have it only move a little. Good enough for a test. If it works, I can work with a file to adjust the V block to fix the small alignment error later.
So let’s facet a drill. ….. OOOOPs. With the offset tool and the dill bitit was way to long.
MMMMMMMM. I need a riser block to get the mast up higher.
But before I put in that effort, let’s see if it will even work.

SO…. One wooden clamp that clamps the nut on the base of the mast…. Still not enough….. add in a plastic box …… that will do it. It wobbles a little, but close enough .

Image

I put on my 180 plated lap. (willing to risk it)
I adjust the angle and actually cut 2 facets that look good, and seem to meet in the middle. For a relief angle, I try just changing the index by 20…..
Looks like it might do…… but a little rough.
I have a banded zinc greenway. I picked it up to do gravers….. so on it goes.
I tough up the cutting facets and they look like mirrors.

This is going to work

I tested the bit…… I have more work to do to figure out how to set the drill bit up. up. I am running where the 2 facets meet, instead of on the leading edge.
I am pretty sure that with the riser block, I can work out how to set up the drill so the angles are correct and I get the clearance angles I need.

Anyhow, that is how I spent one evening.
I will make a 3-4 inch riser block. It will probably be wood for now. It really just needs to be able to hold the mast steady. I am thinking of 2 2x4s clamped together. I can run some bolts through them into the table slot and make up a T nut from the plastic and that will fit down the hole in the table . I only need one, I can use pin to stop the block from rotating. I will sue some more of the plastic on top, and cut in a slot. A second piece for a spacer, and I can have the mast slide and lock in place like it does on the table. It may not last long, but for now it is something I can make with the tools and material I already have. I know that a nice aluminum block would be better, but I do not have that here. There is a local plastic shop that has a free bin out front. They make disks from some ½ inch plastic that the salt trucks use to spread the salt. There was a lot of pieces from where they cut circles…. The price was right….. So I have some nice ½ inch high density plastic to work with. I might go back and see if they have any more, maybe I can make the whole riser block by stacking the pieces together. But now I am really relabeling. I tried to spell check this, but it actually locked up word twice…… It is getting late, so I will post tis as is…… sorry if it is hard to follow.

I actually like this better than the current jig I have for sharpening drills at home. When I get back to Dallas, I will probably make a nicer riser block. I also have some spare ¾ square brass stock. I thing that I will make my V dop from it, and silver solder a dop in place.


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 Post subject: Re: let's facet a drill bit
PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2017 9:51 pm 
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Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:00 am
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Location: Wylie Texas but in Alaska for a while
I made the riser today, and aftger much faffing about, I successfully sharpened the drill into an end mill......

I did a little trial, and I need to get the mast at an angle, to get the 118 angle on a normal bit.

I thought that I could accommodate this with the index, but that does not work.


so, I think that I will see if I have a heavy hinge someplace. I will widen the base of the riser, and add a second mast, that will support the top end of the faceting mast to stabilize it. This will also let me adjust the angle of the tower tilt.


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 Post subject: Re: let's facet a drill bit
PostPosted: Sat May 13, 2017 3:38 am 
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Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:00 am
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Location: Wylie Texas but in Alaska for a while
So I did a little more work on my drill faceting.

I built a setup to pivot the mast to make the included drill angle, and I successfully sharpened a drill.
It worked so well, that I decided to get a chuck that would make the centering less time consuming.

So I picked up a drill chuck that fit a ½ -20 screw, and a grade 5 ½ - 20 bolt. I cut off the thread and started filing and grinding the bolt down to ¼ inch. I switched between putting it on the faceting machine where I trued it up, and hand filing spinning it in a drill.

I eventually got the bolt down to ¼ inch, and check the drill at 90 degrees on the mast to be sure that it was centered.
The drill chuck was longer than the previous setup so I needed to raise the mast a little more.

I also got to thinking, and I am now pretty sure that I can do this without tilting the mast. Here are my thoughts:

I use the angle from the DAD to control the included angle of the drill (normally 118 but that can be adjusted).

If I then put the index of the 80 tooth gear to 0, and adjust the rotation of the drill in the holder so that the cutting edge is along the centerline of the drill. I then back off 4 indexes (which is 18 degrees) for the clearance angle. I grind both clearance facets. (I will do this on the 180 plated plate)

I will then change over to the I then change the index to 2 indexes off of the 0. This should give me a 9.5 degree cutting angle. I will then switch to the zinc and greenway to cut the cutting lip.

If I am going to cut the (5th and 6th) facets, which relieves the angle of the corner of the drill. This is done at half of the angle of the included point.

I have been busy so I have not been able to try this setup, but I will update this thread after I have a bit sharpened and tested using this approach.


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 Post subject: Re: let's facet a drill bit
PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2017 11:04 pm 
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Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:00 am
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Location: Wylie Texas but in Alaska for a while
Well, version 3 is a functional (but not pretty) drill sharpener.
I went back to the tilting base to control the included angle, and I use the angle on the facet head to control the angle of the cutting edge, and the 2o degree relief angle.
I lock the normal sweep of the facet machine using a couple of pieces of plastic and some screws. I have locked he screws to one side of the plastic, and use wing nuts on the second.

I also added a plastic plate to the bottom and a piece of plastic that sits on the surface of the facet machine. The piece on the facet machine has 2 tabs of plastic that slide into the normal adjustment slot in the table, this allows me to control the orientation of the facet head and slide it along the base, to sue more of the lap.
I use a plated 180 grit lap if the drill has been broken, and for the relief angle. I use a plated 3000 lap for the cutting edge. I know that I could use the chrome one, and get a mirror surface, but I did not want to risk gouging it. I have never used the 3000 plated, so it is a good use for it.

If I change the index by about 3 on a 96 index wheel, I think that I can do a modified split point, on larger drills. I found this out by mistake. I had used the index to get the cutting edge to align better, and when I went 180 degrees, I counted the offset of 3 index points in the wrong direction. But it was a nice mistake, because I think I can use it to thin the web on the larger drills.

I have successfully sharpened several of the drills that were dulled trying to drill some stainless bar stock. The faceted drills cut the stainless very well (when I got the angles figured out) .

Here is the fixture as it stands. It works so well that I may end up making one out of aluminum when I get back to Dallas. I think that I have some slide rails that I can use.
The only other mod I may need, is an extension to the work light, so I can see the drills easier.

So a picture of the thing. I tried very hard to keep he cost down, so I used scraps of wood and plastic that I had picked up. The only thing I splurged on was the drill chuck, but it makes it much easier to use.


Image

The dill chuck also came in handy yesterday. The motor for the power window on my RV went out. I could not find an exact replacement. The only ones I could find had a gear on them, and I needed a hex to fit the drive gear I had. I was able to find a replacement motor, with a removable drive gear, so I took it off and super glued it onto a drill that just fit inside of it. I was then able to grind off the teeth of the gear and make the correct hex I needed to fit the gear I had. I attempted to file the gear, but it was so hard that the file would not touch it. I am getting more use from that 180 plated lap than I ever expected. I did not expect to be faceting hard steel and dill bits…… I am glad that I had the 180 lap here, it would have been a real pan to try and get the motor working without it. (I do not have a grinder up here, so I would have been using a dermal……. I did use the dermal and a cut off wheel to clean up the corner. But overall it worked put pretty well.

My daughter is talking about going down to Dallas for some other tests. With both dogs, we will probably drive. At least I can now roll down the window and pay tolls if I need to. I thought that I would have to drive down to Dallas with the inside of the door off and a 2x4 holding up the glass. Then if I needed to pay a toll I could move the 2x4 out of the way and dower the glass. I like this solution much better.


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 Post subject: Re: let's facet a drill bit
PostPosted: Fri May 19, 2017 8:47 pm 
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I would have to go with the 2x4 holding the window. Your a lot handier then most of us. Will pray for you daughter.

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 Post subject: Re: let's facet a drill bit
PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2017 3:50 am 
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Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:00 am
Posts: 1322
Location: Wylie Texas but in Alaska for a while
Thanks for the prayers.

She has a meeting with her Pain Management DR to go over options in a few weeks. The last trial of a different model
spinal Cord Stimulator did not go well.


Before the brain surgery, things were much easier. I use to be a very good engineer and was very good at thinking in 3d.

It was frustrating working on this, I just cold not work out what was going wrong. But I eventually got something that works very well, I have not worked out how to do the last 2 angles at the corners of the drill, but only really need that on larger drills.

It just took a lot longer and more attempts than in the past.

I also have a lot more time than money these days. At least working with wood and plastic, when I mess things up, it does not cost me much other than time.

The local hardware store has a 75% off bin for warped and damaged boards.
So it really does not cost me much. I am sometimes limited in when I can use the table saw. On this project my daughter was not doing well, so I ended up having to use scraps I had laying around. I planned to remake it and clean it up a little, but it is working as it is, so I will just use it like it is for now.

I am sure that some of the wood parts will not last very long, but it works for now. I can replace/rebuild the base for $5, so for that price I can rebuild it several times for the money I would have t spend to make it out of anything else.


There is a local scrap yard in Dallas, that lets me buy scrap back from them. It is always the luck of the draw to see what they have. When I get back, I will drop by a few times and see if I come across. Eventually I will find something that will work.


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