A "Very Much Improved"

Quorn Tool and Cutter Grinder

PART 2
by Walter ii, Mueller
Photos and thawing. by Author

how 16 shows where all the action really occurs on

the grinding machine. This close-up view shows
the lip support finger with its vertical positioning and
clamping mechanism, as well as the horizontal, sliding
member controlled and locked by the two knurled
linger knobs that appear on the left end of the assembly.
Of course, the air spindle and housing also appear on
the upper right, along with the lip support bar, to
complete the picture.
Photo l is just an auxiliary rear view of the entire lip
support positioning apparatus. The two half-pins
Professor Chaddock required as necessary for his
machine setup procedure are shown in Photo 18; 1 use
them as full diameter pins for a considerable saving ci
setup time. The photo also shows a 3/8' diameter
adapter bushing for the air spindle. I also have 1/2 and
/8' diameter bushings, all of which go into the 3/4
diameter hole in the air spindle with a nice, snug fit,
which allows me to use and regrind all end mills with 16 .4 front view of the adjusting mechanism needed
to position the lip support finger in the correct
the listed shank sizes. I have no need to make my air relationship to the grinding wheel.
spindle accept collets of any type, thereby
compromising the great rotational
accuracy I now enjoy.
Photo 19 shows the wheel and
spindle adapter mounts that I
generally use for all my OD grinding
on end mills, and Photo 20 is the "secret weapon"
height gage that makes the setup procedure on the 17 A rear view o/the lip support
VMI Quorn the "piece of cake" it is. I use a dedicated finger positioning mechanism.
Chinese import for this job, because the grit that
unavoidably occurs in any grinding operation is hound
U) affect the absolute accuracy of the instrument.
t M more expensive vernier height gage can safely
remain on my surface
plate and not undergo
any degradation in
accuracy, hut I use
my shop vacuum
: before and after
every grinding session
1!I because, inevitably,
it happens.

18 A detail view of an air

ipindle bushing and the two half-pins called for as setup tools h. 19 The two wine/c I generally lice for grinding the peripheral and
Wofessor Chaddock (see text). end clearances on dull end mills.

PANUARY/FEBRUARY 2000 39
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 With all the preliminary chit-chat out of the way, it's What I wanted now was not so much an absolute size
probably time to get down the business of making on my air spindle, but as true a diameter as I could
chips. Even though the May/Tune '98 issue described the achieve. After several grinding passes to clean up my
business of making the air spindle/air spindle housing and rough-turned air spindle, I found my lathe was not
the July/August '98 issue the rest of the parts, the area can turning a taper hut was generating a barrel-shaped bulge
be profitably revisited because changes were made; and of 0.0002" on the diameter of my workpiece. The time
then, undoubtedly, there will bc the folks who tuned in had arrived to outwit the first problem, so I removed the
late who will want the whole story, all in one piece. workpieee from the lathe and chucked up an unemployed
cube of steel about 2.5" on a side. After I poked a hole
The air spindle is shown in Photo 10 with its mating through this, I bored the diameter to a size about a half-
collars; those members remain common to both thousandth over the bulge diameter of my air spindle.
designs. They are detailed as item numbers 15 and 16. Then I cross-drilled and tapped the block for a 1/4.21)
The air spindle housing (item 17), however, changes in NC pinch bolt, after which I slotted the block, cutting
some details. Since there can he no VMI Quorn without through the drilled and tapped hole, so I could change
these vital parts, the manufacturing story starts here. the size of my big hole by tightening the pinch bolt.
My air spindle started life as a rusty, 11.0" length of 1-1/2 What I had now was a ring lap, as pictured in Photo 21.
diameter hot rolled steel. F-lot rolled çunattractive as it It's not pretty, hut it works well.
is) is the best material because it is less apt to have large One last statement about the air spindle. The detail
residual stress levels when you remove the bark from drawing of this part calls for a 0.7500" diameter hole, on
the bar, and good dimensional stability is what we need. the geometric axis of the central diameter, within 0.0002"
I center drilled the (outboard) end of the bar, rechucked
the piece taking a short grip on the un-drilled end, TIR. This is important, if you expect good grinds from
the machine. When machining this hole, chuck the air
engaged the centered end on the ball hearing center in
the tailstock, and I was off to adventure. Several turning spindle (protected with aluminum scrap) in your four-
jaw universal chuck. Then take the time (maybe hours)
passes later, I was down to about 1.320" diameter, so I to indicate the air spindle outside diameter to 0.0000"
stopped peeling and mounted my home-built grinding TIR concentricity. In toolmakers' parlance, that is
attachment on the lathe, also draping the machine with "dead nuthin" or dead nuts" perfect concentricity.
an attractive assortment of old towels, etc., that I
filched from my wile's ragbag. Then drill and bore the hole to the 0.7500" diameter.

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40 TIlE HO\iE SHOP MACHINIS

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 Don't trust the drill to hold the concentricity you need,
If you don't trust your lathe to produce a 0.7500
diameter on demand, then you may consider reaming
the hole. But first, ream a test hole so you have some
4 notion of what size it is actually going to cut when you r --
get up the nerve to operate on your air spindle.
About 35 years ago, I built an 80", t6.3, reflecting
telescope. I ground and polished the mirror, built all the
telescope hardware, and had great fun until atmospheric
smog and light pollution put me out of business. However

j (since I never throw any good stuff away), I still have a

stash of optical abrasives left from my mirror grinding
days, including 1000-grit (and finer) polishing compounds.
So rechucking my bulgy air spindle on its unturned end
portion, I attacked the bulge with my new lap and a pinch
a 1000-grit aluminum oxide and a little oil. Again, I
attired my lathe in a collection of my wife's castoffs to
be grit sale, and myself in a pair of stout leather gloves
to be injury proof. Then, running my lathe at its slowest
II speed, I lapped the air spindle until it showed a uniform 20 The secret weapon" tool that makes the Vhf! Qoorn
end.to.end diameter of 1.3122 — as close as! can read a setup such an easy job.
mike. At this point, I was not attempting to hit an exact Now, I was ready to make the air spindle housing. I had
diametral dimension. All I wanted was a uniformly on hand a chunk of what my friendly scrap dealer
sized, round geometry. With a slow-acting lapping supposed was mild steel. 1 took the air spindle
process, this was easy to achieve. housing out of a 24-lb. hunk of this stuff.
Next, I had to consider how to I have no idea what it actually was,
make the air spindle housing. but it was not "mild' in nature.
I had on hand an air spindle of When I machined it, I thought it was
1.3122" diameter. I had feisty steel because it fought hack
determined! wanted a bore size hard, but I finally won.
of 1.3135 diameter, giving a I sawed it; I ran it through my shaper;
spindle-to-housing clearance of I milled, drilled and rough-bored it
0.0013'. The best way for me to and was finally ready for the finish
do this job, I knew, was to make boring. I took the precaution of
a plug gage to tell me when I had getting some M-42 cobalt boring bits
,. achieved a bore diameter of 1.3135. because I knew the 4.0 long finish
A plug gage will tell you with great bore would prove too tough
truthfulness if you have a tapered bore or 21 The ring lap used to do the
final sizing of the air spindle. for regular high speed steel
do not meet a minimum size. If used (I didn't have anything in
judiciously, it will also give you an estimate of a carbide that was long enough to reach the
maximum diameter size, because! know from bottom of the hole). But the stuff finally
experience that you can insert (if you know how) a plug knew when it was licked. I expected!
gage that is only .00001" smaller than a straight, round would have a tapered hole and that's what
hole. So I set out to make such a plug gage. Photo 22 I got, but when I got to the point where
shows what it looks like. my 'no-go" gage finally just started in the
hole, I was finished boring.
c— 'IS e.ao.MI "%J( ,s)c-a PR,Ls, Before I pulled the workpieee out of the
- lic -rHe[. —cSote
L'ip,,4 e. chuck, I formed the annular air grooves
in the bored diameter. This is not a
9 bI hard job. All it takes is a little hand
: grinding of a radius-nosed form tool
on a tool bit that is sized to fit into a
stotit boring bar. Locate the grooves
-- as best you can; 22 The double-ended
its not necessary plug gage used to
S0t9 TO Cot determine bore size
T,IA*J A- sI—I..SDLC , to work to 0.001".
C1tMP COLLP' when boring and
£5EThL. kb. iS lapping the air spindle
A LD 5-reeL housing bore.

ARY/FEIiRUARY 2000 41
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42 THE HOME SHOP MACHINIST

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 —
Now, comes an embarrassing awfully sure 23 The lapping tool uaed
question. Do you know how to you have done to bring the bore in the air
T grind a fairly small drill — a No.29 spindle housing to its
an accurate proper diameter.
(0.136' diameter), in fact? Don't layout job on the
,.n, 0•'S try this next operation if you don't location of your air
JAL CPt'flt%.
have a sharp, correctly ground drill holes. It pays to
to work with. What you are now double check!
going to do is drill two 0.136
diameter holes, each from the As you can see from Photo
opposite end of the air spindle 23, a lap doesn't have to be
fancy or look like it was made
housing, and hope they meet in the
middle. Each hole will be about 2- in a tool room. Mine was made
out of a rusty, pitted bar of some
T 1/4" deep, so if you are not certain
oh your drill grinding prowess, I'd
ferrous material that was 1-3/8" in
0 advise buying a new drill. diameter (at least in some places).
Additionally, you have to drill an I turned the OD to L3135" diameter for a
intersecting hole into the junction length of about 2-3/4", drilled and tapped the
point ot the other two long holes. outboard end for a 5/16-18 NC expander screw,
When you drill these holes, clear and put a generous 600 chamfer on the threads.
Then I modified a 5/16-18 NC socket-head cap screw
chips from your drill to have 60° taper to match the threads. Finally, I saw-slit
frequently and use
plenty of a good drilling the lap lengthwise (by eye), into four segments, got rid
lubricant, such as of the burrs, and file-formed a lead-in radius on the end.
Nothing fancy here — in fact, it looks like a mud fence,
Tapmath. If you pay hut it works and sure didn't cost much.
attention and do your
job right, you have I chucked the lap in the lathe and made sure I was in the
every reason to expect slowest speed at which I could run. 1 oiled the lap and
good results. added an oily fingertip's amount of 1000-grit abrasive to
it, then put on my gloves and started lapping. When you
Alter this step, there is are just starting out, you don't run the lathe under
just the drilling of a few power, You lap with a dead lathe spindle until the air
more miscellaneous holes
spindle housing is moderately free on the lap. Then, you
remains, as do the can power the lathe and run the air spindle housing
drilling and tapping of the hack and forth on the lap. Turn the workpiece end-for-end
1/8-27 tpi pipe thread and on the lap frequently, and use paper towelling to clean
the 8-32 NC threads that out the bore so you can regularly use your plug gage
plug the air holes. One to check your bore size. Lapping is not a high-speed
more caution: make operation, but it is all too easy to open the bore up too
much, so check your progress often.
At this point, not much is left to do on your air spindle
housing: the drilling and reaming of the 0.625" diameter
-Th
hole through the mounting boss; the drilling and tapping
of the two 1/4-20 NC holes into the backside of the
mounting boss and into the 0.625" diameter hole; and
the milling of the 0.30 x 0.25" cutout in the front end of
the mounting boss. After you take care of these details,
,J 4 r,Tto .F'CkrLO'. get your 0.625" diameter reamer again and
OP ' 301 SC.'bLn'. carefully clean out the burrs that resulted from
the drilling and tapping of the 1/4-20 NC holes.
After doing a little corner break and cosmetic
filing, sit down in a comfortable chair with a
cold one and your newest and greatest finished
part. You deserve the applause of the crowd,
but lacking that, give yourself a pat on the back.
Items IS and 17 are finished and have been
put into inventory!
Next time, we'll put together the three-way
TwIc ,JO.i''J#,LLA.JCtAC C.$MO"
adjustable lip rest support.
aa-r 5DCS To ,¼cr%,EQe .0CC ,.4,tIe
i,flOtt rL.are.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2000 43
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