Jig for Sharpening Rose Engine Fly Cutter

[RichColvin]

I built a Rose Engine lathe for ornamental turning.  I am currently using it to make some shaving brushes.  A prototype of the shaving brush's handle is shown below :

The Rose Engine I've built uses a fly cutter.  These are made from 3/16" diameter rod, and are short.  Two of my cutters are shown below :

The fly cutter is mounted in a cutting frame (yes, I had to make that too).  The cutting frame and fly cutter are shown below :

I've been trying to think of a way to sharpen these.  To date, I've held them in a hand-held drill, and sharpened them by using the drill to rotate the cutter whilst running along the grindstone.  This leaves a lot to be desired in the way of accuracy and cleanliness of the cut.

I was going to build a variation on a goniostat, but this is a bit complicated, and is meant to sharpen the tool on a flat surface.  Adapting it to the Tormek would be difficult.

Today, I came upon this idea.  It is a two-piece jig that I made today on my metal lathe.  The pieces are shown below separated, and together :

The rod is ¾" diameter, hot-rolled steel, and the collar is aluminum.


The calculations used for sharpening the cutter are :

When the cutter is mounted in the jig and held against the wheel, this is how it looks :

The measured angle is exactly as needed, and this works wonderfully.


if you want more details, please contact me.

Rich

[brettgrant99]

No comment on the sharpening part, not even sure of what a Rose Engine is, but I would be interested in a shaving brush.  That first picture is pretty cool.

[RichColvin]

Bill Boehme recommended (on the AAW forum) that I remake this using parts from the SVD-186 (or the older version, SVD-185).  I have to thank Bill for that recommendation!!   I made this today, and it works amazingly well ... much better than what I'd originally made. 

This approach allows for much better control when sharpening. 

I broke my metric tap (6mm-1.0), so I had to use a screw in the end in lieu of using the Tormek hand screw.  That's why there is a standard screw shown.

This does open up a whole set of ideas for me ...

Rich

[Ken S]

Clever, Rich.

I liked your idea of using your old 185 jig as a dedicated jig for sharpening cutters. (That part of the 185 was not modified in the much improved 186.) You have made your good idea even better!

Keep on innovating!

Ken