tool for cutting rings

[DaveK]

Most tool suppliers have slitting and jewellers saws under different categories. Slitting blades are made to cut deeper, are usually much stouter and have less cutting teeth.

Dick

Not that it matters a lot, but a search for "Jewelers Saw" and "Slitting Saw" at the McMaster-Carr site will take you to the same page. They call them Jewelers Slitting Saws, likely just to mess up us folks arguing semantics

Dave

 

[cuesmith]

I've been doing it that way for about 15 years now. I have a small Atlas lathe dedicated for this operation with a Sears router mounted on the cross slide. I use a .025ths. 2.5 or 3" jewelers blade. It actually is turning to quickly and I have been considering mounting a spindle that I can slow down some. I tried a variable speed doo hinky but it caused to much of a power loss. I cut somewhere between 300 and 500 rings before changing blades but I probably should do it more often. Don't stand in front of that blade when in use as I have had more than one shatter and go flying.

I cut maple rings thinner than veneer and can cut a 1000 of them and know they will all be within a .001 of each other in thickness. Glued up tubes of rings can be cut as thin as .030ths. and not break up as would happen with a parting tool. On the Atlas it takes 10 turns of the handle to move the carriage 1 inch. I have sample cuts of 3/4 of a turn, 1 turn, 1.5 turns, 2 turns and so on up to 10 turns on pegs and when I need to make a deco ring for a another cue makers shaft I merely match up one of my samples to the rings on the original shaft so that I know how far to crank in the cutter to get an identical width ring. Saves very much time as it only takes a couple of seconds to throw in a tube of deco rings and cut off the size needed.

Dick

As Dickie knows, I use the same setup, exactly. I've cut dashed rings as thin as copy paper though I don't recommend going that thin for 2 reasons. At least half of them will lose some of the dashes, and frankly, it's too thin to appreciate dashes in the ringwork. I've cut solid tubes of maple, purpleheart and pink ivory in that thickness easily! If you have your router mounted perfectly and keep a sharp blade in the arbor, it's an indispensable work center in a cue shop, because you have nothing to set up on your main lathe, you use a cheaper small lathe dedicated for rign cutting. Dickie and I have an advantage on a lot of cuemakers in that we're from a city that USED to be the MAJOR machining city in the US, Cincinnati. There's a lot of great old lathes, mills, and other machines that go up for auction and also a lot are found in some old retired machinists basement or garage that can be bought reasonably, if you're patient and have cash in hand at the right time. I have at least 12 lathes, a Bridgeport Mill, a Techno Isel 4 axis CNC with 2 spindles on the Z axis. Not to mention about 10 saws, a round pole sander (centerless), a few belt sanders and tons of misc hand & power tools. Nothing against the makers of "cue machines" but Dickie and I have developed the strategy of using many machine tools set up as perminant "workstations" and moving from one machine to another rather than changing the setup of our main lathe. We felt it gave us better repeatability and allowed us to actually opperate several machines at once. For instance, I have a small Logan Lathe I use for installing ringwork on shafts and sometimes ferrules. For this I don't need a large hole through the head stock or something with a long bed. While the epoxy sets up, with the tailstock used as a clamping device, I can move to my main lathe and and do a similar operation to one end or the other of the butt. Then on to my tip lathe where I can glue on and trim a tip, all the while having the CNC machine, my washer and dryer all going at the same time. Efficiency and accuracy is a lot easier to achieve when you can perform an operation and move on to another workstation . Of course, this is not an option for most people, but it also makes it easier to train apprentices, where they don't have to start out from the beginning learning to set up machine tools. Shame I can't find a good one who wants to stay around instead of learning and moving on! lol

just more hot air!

Sherm

 

[JoeyInCali]

I have at least 12 lathes

I'll settle for 3.
But this is California where we have no room.
Nice weather the last few days though.
Less than 20% humidity.

 

[DaveK]

I have at least 12 lathes

I'll settle for 3.
But this is California where we have no room.
Nice weather the last few days though.
Less than 20% humidity.

So what do you expect from someone in the Rust Belt ? If I lived around there I'd have a lot more machines tools myself. Space and humidity are not problems in Saskatchewan, but finding a half decent used lathe is near impossible

In general I find that a shop with many single (or limited) purpose machines can be very efficient for a sole operator, goodonya Sherm and Dickie.

Dave

 

[JoeyInCali]

So what do you expect from someone in the Rust Belt ? If I lived around there I'd have a lot more machines tools myself. Space and humidity are not problems in Saskatchewan, but finding a half decent used lathe is near impossible

In general I find that a shop with many single (or limited) purpose machines can be very efficient for a sole operator, goodonya Sherm and Dickie.

Dave

Used equipment are plentiful and affordable here.
Specially now that machine shops are closing like your local convenient stores.
When I retire, I might just move out of here and move to the boonies or the islands.

 

[DaveK]

When I retire, I might just move out of here and move to the boonies ....

We'd love to have ya Joey ... bring machines

Dave

 

[PetreeCues]

Like this?

OMGLMAO.... you're brutal, Joey. BRUTAL.

JWP