# Best Homemade Tools >  Shop Assembled Cutter Grinder

## jjr2001

I had this XY table for the past 30 years and only used it on the drill press.
But then I purchased a small mill and no longer needed the table.
Well now that I have a mill I needed to sharpen some cutters. 
Works well for Lathe tool bits as well.

The column is just a hunk of heavy steel tubing. Riding on that is the mount for the grinder. 
That would be all aluminum except for the 1/2-10 Acme Lead Screw. Used for positioning the
height of the grinder which is then locked by the two rather large knurled aluminum lock bolts.

The XY table has variable positioning so it may be located for various setups. The column may be relocated
to several fixed positions. Right now the grinder seems a little under powered. I am going to replace the grinder with a larger model and see if I can get enough power for some surface grinding. That should make this a very useful tool in the shop.

So far it has been used for lathe tool bits and end mill sharpening.

Several accessories are shown which include a multi angle fixture that can hold just about any tool at almost
any angle. It's main use if for lathe tool bits.

The spin indexer along with the shop made index pointer is used for end mills. With the index pointer it can sharpen the flutes as well as the ends.

I will post the new motor and report on how well it can be used for a simple surface grinder.

Cheers, JR


I added a fine feed to improve its use as a surface grinder:

http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/u...2517#post72517

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## Paul Jones

jjr2001,
This is an interesting setup with many versatile applications in the shop. Thank you for all the photos and design considerations.
Regards, 
Paul

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PJs (Aug 16, 2016)

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## PJs

Thanks for Sharing this JR. Nice home build and lots of uses around the shop I can see. Be interesting to see if you can use it as a surface grinder. That XY looks to be fairly substantial. How are the gibs/travel on it?

Thanks, ~PJ

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## jjr2001

Hi Pj, The table works pretty well. I bought it from Grizzly quite a while ago. I believe they still sell the same one.
The gibs seem to hold adjustment and are fairly uniform through out the entire length of travel. Every once in a while I will touch them up but it is overall worth what I paid for it.

Cheers, JR

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PJs (Aug 17, 2016)

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## rossbotics

Very interesting, allot of possibilities I see there, I see you have a diamond wheel on her. let me know how it sharpens carbide end mills.

Thanks for sharing

Doug

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## jjr2001

I have good results with end mills. The ends are easy. The flutes are another thing. Hard to get a smooth run
with the setup I am using with the spin indexer. Results are acceptable for home shop but an air bearing would be better. :Big Grin: 

Put the new motor on today and what a difference. Both were rated at 1/3 hp but the first one (gray) was less than 1/4 hp. I tried a bit of surface grinding on an old rail road track cut off that I use for an anvil. Worked pretty fair. Not as smooth as I would have liked but it is flat. I will mainly be using it for flats on shafts or putting a flat on a cylinder etc. Should be useful for grinding any hard steel tools or parts.

Still need to retry lathe tool bits with the new motor. Can't wait.
Have a couple of end mills that could use some sharpening too.

The new motor mount moves the motor back 1" and allows more tilt. Up to 20 degrees up or down.
One need is a fine feed on the carriage. The 1/2-10 lead screw is much too coarse. I will add a fine feed in addition to the lead screw since I want to keep the fast speed to raise and lower the motor during any major setup changes.

A few pics of the new motor and mount:

Cheers, JR

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## DIYer

Thanks jjr2001! We've added your Cutter Grinder to our Grinding category,
as well as to your builder page: jjr2001's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:















Cutter Grinder
 by jjr2001

tags:
grinder, table

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## jjr2001

First I received my magnetic chuck and was ready to check it out with my power feed. The motor is just a car seat actuator and not intended for continuous use. Hot it was. Hotter than the one on my mill and I suppose that is due to the constant use while surface grinding. So, we made a bit of a heat sink from the scrap pile. Should do the job. The portable control box is shown in one of the pictures. The more I use it the more I wonder how I would do without it.

Cheers, JR

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## pfredX1

Surface grinders have a rack to traverse the X axis. So you can get in a fairly rapid pass.

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## jjr2001

Thanks pfredX1, 

This one will most likely stay slow since the motor is only 1/3 hp. 
Of course if I needed fast I could go the Tim Taylor the tool man route and up my power supply to 30 volts!
Just kidding.

Cheers, JR

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PJs (Sep 21, 2016),

Toolmaker51 (Jan 15, 2017)

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## pfredX1

The traverse speed is critical to finish, and keeping the piece from heating up. A hot part tends to warp. That's no good. I've run into steels that even being careful they could not be ground dry. Surface grinding is a fairly finicky operation. At least it is in my experience with it. My experience came from rebuilding wheel dresser units at a place called J&S Tool. They made the Fluid Motion Wheel Dresser. Which was a pricey instrument. Even the rebuild wasn't cheap. Rebuilding one entailed resurfacing the entire device on surface grinders too. The spec was a thousandth of an inch, but we never let one go that was out by more than 500 millionths. Just how it was.

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## jjr2001

Thanks, that is great info. I did not think about the part getting hot, just the motor! 
I will be keeping an eye on the temperature of the part and make sure to only take small cuts.

Cheers, JR

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## pfredX1

You can hold a piece of metal in your hand and change its dimensions. So friction grinding on metal really has an effect.

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## jjr2001

Good to know, thanks.

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## tonyfoale

> I have good results with end mills. The ends are easy. The flutes are another thing. Hard to get a smooth run
> with the setup I am using with the spin indexer. Results are acceptable for home shop but an air bearing would be better.
> Cheers, JR



JR,

I have only been here for about a month and I have only just seen this. I recently posted my T&C machine based on a small mill. There are many similarities between the two. We obviously think along similar lines.
If you have a look at my post you will see how easy it can be to modify the Spindexer to use an air bearing. It makes doing the flutes much easier.

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## Toolmaker51

> I have good results with end mills. The ends are easy. The flutes are another thing. Results are acceptable for home shop but an air bearing would be better.
> One need is a fine feed on the carriage. The 1/2-10 lead screw is much too coarse. Cheers, JR



Most would vote air bearing. Need be, a longer spindle in the spin-dex and an air fitting through the body has been done. Adapting a set of linear guides carrying a collet might be a solution too.
Far as the stop screw goes; I'd keep the ACME and attach a clamp on stop, with Marv Klotz's differential screw and the potential of any increments you desire.

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Paul Jones (Jan 15, 2017),

PJs (May 9, 2018)

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## jjr2001

Thanks Tony, I like your spin indexer to air bearing indexer conversion and your T&C grinder. Looks like I might try it on mine. I can see how that would be much a smoother action when grinding the flutes.

Cheers, JR

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## jjr2001

Thanks TM51,
I actually have the fine feed stop already on the grinder. See post:http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/u...0461#post72517

I kept the 1/2-10 lead screw and just lower the grinder to the adjustable stop (fine feed) and I have about .100 inch of travel. It can resolve better than .0005". Works pretty good so far.

Cheers, JR

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Toolmaker51 (Jan 16, 2017)

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## ncollar

JJR
What you could do to improve your grinder is take the long screw out and install a lever handle to push and pull the table rapidly from under the revolving wheel. 
Very nice design, good luck and be very careful because when a wheel comes apart they move like shrapnel from a bomb.
Nelson

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jjr2001 (Dec 25, 2017)

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## jjr2001

Thanks collar, I do have a guard for grinding wheels but it is not shown in the pictures.

Of course it the wheel frags I doubt the guard will contain it!
Safety glasses are a must when grinding but even with all the safety gear 
a grinding wheel blowing up is bad news. Never had it happen and I 
hope I never experience that.

Cheers, JR

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## ncollar

JR
to make it more versatile you could remove the lead screw and replace it with a hand lever to get that quick transverse. 
Beautiful build
Nelson

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Paul Jones (Mar 25, 2019),

PJs (May 9, 2018)

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## Toolmaker51

Another method of traverse; possibly more common than pfredX1's rack and pinion is a drum/ spool and aircraft/ motorcycle controls type cable. 
Some are plastic coated, and occupy 1 or better 2 full turns around the drum. 
Drum's shaft is lever operated, with transverse rotating handle, nice ones can vary the levers' length. Some 'levers' are crankwheels, I like the inertia of them over a plain lever. Shaft can run bushings or bearings. One end tied to underside of table, a wire clamp is fine. Other is also, but terminates in an extension spring and turnbuckle arrangement; to set lightest possible tension and positive driving traction. Rather like a level wind fishing reel or winch, but physics does the level wind job not a mechanism. As cable pays out and returns both under consistent tension the wire wraps directly against the previous turn. A scored drum is not required.
Very smooth arrangement whether conventional ways or ball bearing. This allows zero backlash control and quick table movement in X. That will greatly improve finish at right and left edges. 
A small motor will grind, the limitation is amount of crossfeed per pass. A decent 6 x 12 grinder and wheel will grind .003 to .020 deep, depending on material and crossfeed. If you can get finish passes .0005-.001 deep x .150-.200 across, and conventional pass [transit to right] looks like the climb pass [to left] you are losing little to nothing against genuine surface grinders.
If anyone'd like a drawing I can, but not tonite. I get up for 11 hour shifts at 04:30.

jjr2001, Email me. I'll prep you on first tooling builds supplementing the grinder...small, convenient, and you'll maximize [or at least elevate] it's potential.

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jjr2001 (May 21, 2018),

PJs (May 9, 2018)

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## Raytonian

> I had this XY table for the past 30 years and only used it on the drill press.
> But then I purchased a small mill and no longer needed the table.
> Well now that I have a mill I needed to sharpen some cutters. 
> Works well for Lathe tool bits as well.
> 
> The column is just a hunk of heavy steel tubing. Riding on that is the mount for the grinder. 
> That would be all aluminum except for the 1/2-10 Acme Lead Screw. Used for positioning the
> height of the grinder which is then locked by the two rather large knurled aluminum lock bolts.
> 
> ...



Wonderful, thank you.

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