Drilling out Guard holes

Burchtree

Burchtree

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I was just wondering how you guys drill out the tang hole in your guards. To me, it's a very time-consuming operation and it tends to make me shy away from those types of fixed blades. Do you just drill and file? Is there a bit for a milling machine that I can rig up to use on my drill press? I want preciseness, but can't afford a milling machine at the moment.
 
I don't like making guards, but a drill and file gets it done. Buster Warenski used to do his by hand. You have to check the fit after every stroke of the file.
 
Hey now, that's not the answer I was looking for! :D That's what I'm doing now. Unfortunatly, it's a piece of 1/4 piece of 0-1. :grumpy:

Man, I need some Nickel-Silver.
 
Its a 5 minute job with a milling machine. Even a drill press with and end mill and a cross feed table should work until the head bearings begin to wear. You can take light cuts and more of them to ease the side force. Be sure to use a very sharp tool and keep it lubricated. I never cut the slot exact. I make it smooth inside and slightly wider and use my hydraulic press to close the gaps while it is on the tang. Works every time. Then simply resurface the guard.
 
I guess I'll take a trip to Grizzly on the 'morrow and see what I can find for my Shop Smith. Thanks for the help.
 
I tried the endmill in the drill press on brass, and it cut down on a lot of time. Then I made a crude mill that ended up doing the dangerous chatter because of a poor hand feed setup. Tore it all apart, got more this and that junk with an old screw hand feed. Next is assembly and eye protection, for sure! I am darn sure about one thing, you can't just put the part into a drill press vise and slide it into the cutter without risking body parts and a hole in the side of your shop. Chatter= wide-eyed hoot owl syndrom and a heart rate pounder. A GOOD mill setup would be perfect, and you will retain all your body parts intact. EDITED TO ADD, I was using a slitting blade in the home made mill. With slow going it was possible with brass flat stock, but obviously very dangerous.
 
I noticed Harbor Freight had a sale on their Micro Mill, maybe I should buck up, and grab one. Any experience with this machine? Will it work for these little (yet time-consuming) jobs?
 
I bought the Mini Mill from Harbor freight specifically for slotting guards.....that's all I use it for & it does an excellent job of that, mill slightly undersize & a couple of file strokes for a perfect press fit......
 
Thanks -- how much other stuff do you need to buy with one of those mills? (weird, I'm hijacking my own thread. :D) Just the vise, and mill ends?

BTW, I just checked out your website and you've got some beautiful knives at some great prices. :eek:
 
Originally posted by Burchtree
Thanks -- how much other stuff do you need to buy with one of those mills? (weird, I'm hijacking my own thread. :D) Just the vise, and mill ends?

BTW, I just checked out your website and you've got some beautiful knives at some great prices. :eek:
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Michael, the tooling can frequently exceed the cost of the tool. Like someone here said, they could afford to give the machine away, if you bought the tooling from them.
You want centercutting end mills. They allow you to cut downward, as well as laterally. A "good" vise is a must.And if you can afford it, a bigger mill. :eek:
 
what type of miils are you guys using?

All I have is an elbo or 2 and files.....
 
Sorry....I relpied to a few of them... :footinmou
 
Bruce Bump said:
Its a 5 minute job with a milling machine. Even a drill press with and end mill and a cross feed table should work until the head bearings begin to wear. You can take light cuts and more of them to ease the side force. Be sure to use a very sharp tool and keep it lubricated. I never cut the slot exact. I make it smooth inside and slightly wider and use my hydraulic press to close the gaps while it is on the tang. Works every time. Then simply resurface the guard.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm glad this old thread got dredged up somehow! I didn't see this the first time! Bruce, so you make your guard oversize and then press it to fit, cool idea! Approximately how much oversize to you make it on length and width?

:)

-Darren
 
Just a hypothetical question here. Let's say someone buys a harbor freight mini mill to cut guard slots, square up shoulders, etc. (We'll call him "Wulf"). This guy is pretty dumb, spends 60 hours a week at his office job, has dainty little office-boy fingers, and generally screws things up when he uses his hands.

It's hardly any wonder that he can't even get this guard slot thing right - he's never had any experience with a machine and has no clue what he's doing. So all his guard slots wind up jagged, crooked, never straight or smooth, and he can't for the life of him figure out why. He's tried different mills (most recently, some four flute center cutting end mills he bought from littlemachineshop.com), different techniques, and has even thought about buying a new X-Y table in the desperate hope that maybe therein will lie the answer. He's already got a pretty good vice, after all...

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Anyway, this guy is at wit's end (hypothetically speaking, of course) and has more success using files than he does with this stupid mini mill he paid all sorts of money for. So, before taking the machine out back and shooting it, what might one suggest he try to do differently next time?

Remember - this is purely hypothetical. After all, he's probably missing something totally elementary that most people would find completely laughable. So maybe it would be best to cover the very basics, and walk this poor dumb bastard through the operation of milling a guard slot step by step... Please. He's desperate!
 
The smaller the mill, the harder it is to do the guard slot.
I would make your passes(only cutting .005 max depth per pass)very slowly.
If you have problems with that, cut the depth in half, and try again. Cinch down on the Y table lock, and keep some drag on the X lock(or is it the other way around?). That, hopefully will keep the table from moving too much out of line.

The vise you have pictured is excellent, as it applies downward torque as well as closing torque, to help keep the workpiece from tilting. The problem is, it's probably as big(4"), or bigger(6") than your mini mill table, and probably weighs as much.

I use a vise like that in 4" size on my mill/drill, but I have a Jet 2HP that weighs about 800 pounds, and wish I had a bigger, Bridgeport style knee mill.

You can do it, just go slow, with light cuts.

Edited to add; The 4 flute centercutting end mills you have will work fine for most steels, like 416 for guards.
For nickel silver, or brass, you might want to try the same thing in a 2 flute design, if you don't get good results from the 4.
 
Wulf said:
.....Remember - this is purely hypothetical. After all, he's probably missing something totally elementary that most people would find completely laughable. So maybe it would be best to cover the very basics, and walk this poor dumb bastard through the operation of milling a guard slot step by step... Please. He's desperate!
Click to expand...
There may be, hypothetically speaking, more than one poor bastard out there that has the exact same issue as you. He also, would be interested in this thread.:rolleyes:
 
As has already been stated, the bigger the mill the easier your job will be. I have the largest table model milling machine that Jet makes. When I first got this machine I tried to mill 1/8 inch slots in 416 stainless and broke several bits and just about gave up.
I took some advice, got some 1/8 inch carbide center cutting endmills. I speeded up my cutting speed and used the table power feed with light cuts. I now am able to do a satisfactory job. I can't stress how importaint the table power feed is. Cutting slots by using the hand crank on the table is for me very difficult. With the power feed it's much easier.
If you don't have a mill you can drill a series of holes in the guard, then put a 1/8 inch carbide bur in a dremel tool and cut a slot from one hole to the next. Then it's not too hard to file the slot to size.
 
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