Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...

[cnr6400]

I know a few guys that have bought / made / finished Quorn and other tool grinders, and they all say the same - once you have sharpened your collection of cutters the tool grinders don't get a lot of use. It occurred to me some time ago that adding a column-mounted table to do surface grinding as well as cutter grinding would make the machine far more useful. Could be an X only table, or XY, and would need an elevation mechanism to vary height between the wheel and the table. If light passes are taken during use, and table size kept relatively small, the construction would not need to be heavy duty, and probably would not cause any bearing issues in the spindle. Just food for thought. 

[Kim]

Wow!  That's really nice looking! 

I'd say it's a great piece of equipment to have!  It will definitely come in handy from time to time.

Kim

[Mcgyver]

Very nice looking machine, well done!

[Charles Lamont]

Very nice looking job. To me, the earlier cast Rotating Base looks so much better than the later bolted barstock arrangement. 

[Chipswitheverything]

Thanks for the appreciative comments.  Charles, I agree that the all in one rotating base is a better looking entity, and although it has been viewed as one of the trickier parts, maybe because of the undercuts, I found that the dedicated double-ended tool detailed by Prof. Chaddock, which I made up as described, did a great job in forming the grooves easily.
 
 The Prof. did give some details of an arrangement , in a later article, to rig the wheelhead up on a milling machine quill to use as a simple surface grinder, as Cnr suggests.  I suppose the big problem of using a mill is the generated gritty dust, so a separate table arrangement might be quite a good idea.

  As Kim says, "handy from time to time" is certainly what the machine will be;  and I'm not too worried if it doesn't now come in for all that much use : - it's just been nice to see it go from a big box of bits representing many hours of work, but useless just as a growing pile of components, to a finished entity, rather the same as it would be if it was a model that finally came together.  Dave

[Chipswitheverything]

A few further notes: have done the alignment tests with the dial indicator and the test bar made to fit the 40 degree taper spindle nose, various turn around tests.  They all went satisfactorily,  and have now got the index lines marked on the components needing that.  Also have made up the simple style of cutter holders for four Imperial sizes of shanks.  Metric can be done later if the need arises, but with such a glut of sharp cutters already , may not be soon..   Also have made the various setting pins used with the grinder, waiting some hardening and tempering in a batch.
 The gunmetal casting for the tilting bracket holding the workhead is one of those components that has a reputation as being rather awkward, or a fascinating challenge depending on how one sees it...
Here are some photos that I dug out showing some operations on the casting.  I modified it a little in order to use a split clamping bush to secure the rotating base rather than slitting the casting as in the original design.  Hope that these may interest any builders contemplating a Quorn, or yet to do the bracket.  Dave

[Bruno Mueller]

#Dave#
 
very nicely documented,
I am looking forward to more photos.

[Chipswitheverything]

Thanks for your comment and interest, Bruno.
Here are some pictures of the work on the Rotating Base, a steel rather than iron casting:  which seems to have been modified, supposedly to be easier, in the recent Hemingway design for the Mk III.  However, the original design is neat and compact, and the Professor's recommended home-made tool for the grooves works very well. There are a lot of operations to be performed on this casting, ( as with the Tilting Bracket ), admittedly it does get a little fraught as a lot of time is invested in the thing, but pleasing if it goes well. Dave

[Del_61]

Interesting to see how you are machining those critical components on the Quorn. I use my Myford S7 and Emco following the instructions in the Profs book as well as the build instructions from Hemingway.

I am built the rotating table using the "built up" method I.e. the mk3 version and I agree the one piece casting does look neater.

I also totally agree that as more time spent on machining one part increases the stress levels as the fear of stuffing it up and hours of careful work is scrapped!

Almost all major components made now on my Quorn, just need to finish off the work holding casting and the final part is the spindle. Not sure if I will bother finishing off the spiralling attachment part though.

I bought the Quorn castings from a fellow model engineer they are the mark 2 version and I am modifying it and updating it to the mk3.

Good luck with the build !

[Chipswitheverything]

Thanks Del, glad that the methods interested you, though it seems that you are just about through with most of the build now.  I'm completely done too, (for now, anyway..), the machine is all together and working, as per the photos of it earlier, and the handful of setting pins and odds and ends, some cutter holders, are done now.  I need to do the dressing of the four grinding wheels.  Outside the workshop, on a Workmate...  No use today, pouring with rain the whole day!
 The spiralling casting, as I mentioned, has just been done with the two bores, it was easy to do at the time when the workhead jig, for the bores, was set up on the lathe. But it will probably remain unfinished and unpainted...

If you have kept a record, be interested to see some photos of your machining of various components, we all have our individual ways..!  Dave

[Charles Lamont]

From the photos it seems you have also made a fair proportion of the stuff in the George Thomas books. What's next?

[Bruno Mueller]

I made some of the accessories shown in Mr. Thomas' book for my Bonelle as well.
The jig to resharpen threading dies and the part to resharpen saw blades (bandsaw blades).
Unfortunately, I have not taken any pictures of the fabrication. Only the finished accessories I have photographed.

Accessories threading die sharpening.

[Bruno Mueller]

Accessories saw bands sharpening.

[Chipswitheverything]

Thanks for featuring the two unusual accessories, Bruno : I would think that not too many Quorn makers have made and used those particular devices.  I may have a few dies that could do with a bit of improvement at some time. ...

Charles, I recall that you also had some personal association with the late Geo H Thomas: in fact I found the note among the discussion of that gentleman in this forum :    https://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,10932.msg253352.html#msg253352   ( in case that might interest other members ).
And that you also have made quite a few of GHT's excellent tool projects. 
  Don't think that I will be venturing on other designs from that source, there are some , like the index line engraver, that I could have found useful if I'd made it years ago, but would probably not exploit much if made now.  Some of my home made tooling has come from designs by J A Radford.  I have a few tooling items, like the GHT Bending Rolls, that came to me ( bequests, sadly ) from other model engineers who had made them. Some of the most useful GHT items made up , I have found, are the comparatively small bits and pieces, like the designs for various boring tools and holders, ditto for screwcutting tools, little parting -off tools and so on, they tend to be used in most workshop sessions.   Dave