Stitch Rings
- Thread starter deadbeat
- Start date
I have a lathe from tsb modified with taper and auto feed. i have used endmills, they were cheap and it took a long time to cut grooves without breaking them. I have the router mount from chris hightower with a porter router. I heard someone mention using slot cutters the other day it seemed as it would be much faster and i wouldn't break the cutter when i dial a little too deep or feed a little too fast.
Yep for that a slot cutter would be fast and should give a cleaner cut, but if something was to go bad. You will be wishing all that was broken was an endmill. Just my opinion !
Larry
RBC
Deceased
I use end mills on both the CNC and lathe. My reason is ease of set up and being able to cut closer to the headstock chuck. The diameter of the slot cutter makes you waste more material unless you use a fixture to hold your material. If you are just chucking up on one end and holding the other end in the tailstock there is less waste with the end mill.
Hi,
I used to use different size wing cutters and slitting saws on a dedicated small lathe with 360 degree indexing but when I started using my cnc to do the slots, I now use a 2 flute end mill and compensate the pocket to fit the strips.
With a .004 clean up pass on the end mill I have found it to be cleaner that using the saw for fit up later. Perfect every time with no glue line.
The saw works great however if you have it aligned perfectly plum.
JMO,
Rick
I used to use different size wing cutters and slitting saws on a dedicated small lathe with 360 degree indexing but when I started using my cnc to do the slots, I now use a 2 flute end mill and compensate the pocket to fit the strips.
With a .004 clean up pass on the end mill I have found it to be cleaner that using the saw for fit up later. Perfect every time with no glue line.
The saw works great however if you have it aligned perfectly plum.
JMO,
Rick
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rings
I usually use Juma for my stitch rings. I broke too many end mills so I changed to slot cutters.
I turn the juma to the proper diameter between centers. Then I hold it between centers with a spur driver so I can index it. I make 6 inch billets and cut the slots the full length end to end so none is wasted.
After the strips are glued in, I put it back between centers and I clean up the OD and then bore the billet and cut rings.
It's all done on the deluxe lathe.
Kim
I usually use Juma for my stitch rings. I broke too many end mills so I changed to slot cutters.
I turn the juma to the proper diameter between centers. Then I hold it between centers with a spur driver so I can index it. I make 6 inch billets and cut the slots the full length end to end so none is wasted.
After the strips are glued in, I put it back between centers and I clean up the OD and then bore the billet and cut rings.
It's all done on the deluxe lathe.
Kim
How do you cut the rings all the way to the end when parting them off? In other words how are you holding the stitch ring billet when parting the rings off? I have stuck a dowel through them to part off to the end of billets before but am not thrilled with that method.
Sorry .. I didn't explain the last part.
I hold the billet in the chuck and cut off rings. Of course the last inch and a half can't be done like that because you would be hitting the chuck with the saw.
I turn the last 2 inches of a dowel to tightly fit the short piece of billet and slip the short piece of billet on it. I leave the dowel in the chuck so it stays running true. I cut the last inch and a half of the rings using the dowel to hold the billet. A couple drops of CA on the end next to the chuck keeps the billet from moving on the dowel.
I don't know if this is the best method but it works for me.
Kim
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My billets are made in 6" lengths.I take the the 3" pcs. that I cut off of my coring dowels and glue into each end of the material I'm going to use.Just a drop or 2 of super glue works fine.I use 18" and 15" coring dowels so the cutoffs come in handy for this.I make sure both end are turning true then chuck up on one end and use the tailstock in the other.Then I use slotting or slitting saws of desired thickness to cut the slots on my cnc lathe.The blades can be stacked for a desired thickness as well.When finished,I cut off one of the dowels,bore it out and cut rings.I leave one end so I have something to chuck up on to cut the last inch or so. This works good for me and is alot faster than cutting with end mills.
Best Wishes,
Best Wishes,