hardinge dv59 dovetail question

Watch out! Gunner's gonna try and sell you an Omni-Turn retrofit for your machine. Those are nice.

Jim

I'll just take on your dovetail question. Of course, first mill out the slot with an endmill leave it maybe 0.010 thou short of final. If you can afford a carbide insert dovetail cutter, they are the best. I can't - I use HSS cutters. You just cut one side at a time, I've always conventional milled, not climb milled. Use a way slow RPM. Lots of coolant.

THE REAL TROUBLE with dovetail cutters is the little sharp pointed corner wants to burn and dull. I have a tool and cutter grinder - sharpening this point back so its actually two close spaced 30 degree angles rather than one

60 really helps. I haven't checked for availability but a cutter with a radius here would be a huge benefit.

To measure the width of your dovetail, use two roll pins of known diameter. Put them in the corner on each side and measure distance between pins. a little trig will get you the actual measurement. You may want to use fixtures on the mill so you can take the part out and test fit it to the lathe.

Karl

Thanks Karl. After checking on the prices of a suitable HSS dovetail cutter, I decided to just go ahead and get a carbide insert 60 degree cutter made by Dorian. I was stunned to find a dealer called JTS machinery who had this one for $60 cheaper than MSC! The inserts are much cheaper there too. And here I thought enco and msc had the best prices... :-)

The cutter I ordered is D60-225-TD4-100. It takes 3 inserts. I ordered 3 of the coated (for steels) and 3 uncoated (alum and cast iron). We shall see how this thing works...should be fun! I have read past posts that say run insert tooling at high rpm and with no coolant....opinions? The max rpm on the shizuoka is 3600. The dovetail cutter diameter is 2.25" and it can cut 0.700" deep.

Another question is what type of material to make the part from. I am thinking

4140 steel, anealed? I was thinking of using an aluminum-bronze alloy as the gib, or gray iron. Regular bronze is annoying because it only comes in rounds...

Rick

When fitting dovetail slides, it's important to *not* have contact at the points. The make dovetail should have it's sharp corner knocked off, and the female one should have a square or half round groove cut at its innermost corner.

This way the contact that occurs happens at the flanks of the dovetails, never at the points. Trying to spot and scrape a dovetail slide where there is bearing at the very tips of the pieces is a real hassle.

Jim

Very true. In fact, I cut dovetails with a shaper..and Ive ground a special cutter to go into the corners and relieve them to a deeper depth. Its the same principle as the groove down the center of a v block.

Gunner

Confronting Liberals with the facts of reality is very much akin to clubbing baby seals. It gets boring after a while, but because Liberals are so stupid it is easy work." Steven M. Barry

In a horizontal milling machine, I use a small woodruff key cutter to open up the bottom of the V.

Jim

Great minds think alike. Except politically of course

lol

Gunner

Confronting Liberals with the facts of reality is very much akin to clubbing baby seals. It gets boring after a while, but because Liberals are so stupid it is easy work." Steven M. Barry