Making a Dovetail Slide (Also a Belt Sander Fixture)
This episode on Blondihacks, I’m making dovetails! Exclusive videos, drawings, models & plans available on Patreon!
/ quinndunki
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Quinn, my hack for more aggressive chain drilling: first pass is every other hole. Then drill the bridges between the holes. It seems to help reduce (balance) some of the deflection compared to a heavy gap in the cut on only one side. Great job (as always)!
Every other hole works great. Here’s another method that I use. Drill an undersize hole at each end of the slot and use an undersize end mill to plunge cut the waste, taking small bites at the time. After the waste is removed finish both sides of the slot with the same end mill.
This was an exceptionally extra-good video! Kind of embarrassing how many new ideas I learned.
Indeed. By giving the subsequent holes an equal amount of already existing previous holes on either side, the forces would be balanced out. And by drilling the first holes by themselves without them encroaching on previous ones leads to straighter drilling.
That’s a great tip!
Yes it works great. I can’t remember where I seen this trick the first time. It was either AvE or Old Tony. Or maybe Tom from Oxtools. But I could’ve sworn you were the one who taught me that Quinn. But at the same time, I know it’s not in your video about chain drilling.
Thank goodness. Here we are again! That was a loooong week. 😂
new Saturday morning cartoons just dropped. love to see a new video waking up after a workweek.
I am simple, I know, but the "canadian right" etc signs gave me enormous pleasure. Never change.
Quinn, I just HAVE to commend you on your videos: excellent lighting and framing, those helpful insets with the part schematics and arrows pointing to the features being worked on, clear and helpful voiceover comments. A textbook case of good presentation. Congratulations on a job superbly well-done!
Hmmmmm, this gives me an idea... sometime, Quinn, you might possibly want (or not, and that's fine) to have a video that includes "twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one"??!? :D [If you don't know the reference, look it up and give a listen. It's fun times.]
No better hobby machinist resource on YT. I always learn so much. Thanks again!
Dovetails! whooh-ooh Every day they're out there making Dovetails! whooh-ooh
I love your videos, and you"re an excellent teacher! I had to teach myself machining, welding, electrical, etc., but I have had my own manufacturing business for 43 years! My son has taken it over our business now, but at 71 years old I still enjoy making parts in my machine shop. Your videos are very relaxing to watch. I like how your so down to earth, and when you make little errors you don't act like a know it all. I am an expert at fixing my mistakes, that everyone will surely make! I sure wish I would have had the internet with KZhead 43 years ago. Everything I learned was from trial and error. When you learn like that, you retain the good parts forever!
"if he attempts to murder the reflection..." i love this fine site
Hey Quinn, I had a dream the other night and you were in it. It went like this: Somehow we ended up at the same Halloween party, and as the party was wrapping up people started asking for Tupperware so that they could take home the leftovers, only there was no Tupperware to be had. You said, "Hold on, I got this." Out of nowhere you produced a potters wheel and started to give a master class in ceramic dinnerware production. In short order you had produced plenty of ceramic bowls with lids for everyone to bring their nachos home. Somehow, I'm assuming through the magic of KZhead, the bowls were even fired and glazed. You saved the party. 😂 When I woke up the dream got me wondering... The potters wheel was humanity's first machine center, invented thousands of years ago... Do you suppose this is when the chamfer was invented? Or did they invent the potters wheel to make better chamfers? 🤔
It;s how we came to be separated from the animals. That and the log roller, but most people never chamfered the ends of the logs.
@@oldfarthacksUmmm, I’m thinking Greene and Greene (on a very small scale, of course)!
Quinn, you really need to upgrade to a knife making belt grinder. If you get one, get one that has adjustable speeds, it's a game changer. More belt options, like leather and scotchbrite for polishing, it can go faster or slower. It's amazing. There are kits and plans for them as well so you can build your own (hint, hint)
I'll second that... Bought one a year ago (and I'm not even a knife/blade maker) and it's so much better than the std belt sander it replaced! Being able to use leather and other belts is great too, but that can be done with a std 1" x 30" belt sander. They make a wide variety of belts for those.
@@WHJeffB if you have space, a 2x72 is better than a 1x30 because the belts are longer. longer belts keep the material and belts cooler. But even a 1x30 is much better than a woodworking belt grinder like she has now.
Great job as always Quinn!! Make another and stack them 90° apart so you can move side to side as well. Thanks for the chuckles with the Canadian right and Canadian cube!! Swarfy 2024!!
Closing in on 200k subscribers and this video is a great example of why!
Missed you! Very glad to see you back.
Ahhh yes, good old reverse cuts… my favourite 😂
Yay! It's Blondihacks time!!!
YAY, foreshadowing Quinn goodness day
What a clean workshop ! I wish my kitchen would be that clean.
Maybe this is a stupid thought, but couldn't you have put a shim or thin gauge block under the gib while you were milling it inside the dovetail? That way you could cut it to size in one operation without milling into your dovetail.
Missed you last week. Glad you're back!
Hi Quinn. We love your videos. By we I mean my 6 year old daughter and I. I wanted you to know you have inspired an new generation of girls getting into machining. She has built her own "shop" out of leggos & toy power tools and makes "KZhead videos" for us explaining how to use the tools and has copied many of your mannerisms. She's been doing this since she was about 2 -1/2. She'll ask me "Can we watch Blondihacks, daddy?" Violet loves seeing sprocket too. I've been watching your videos since I got my lathe (Sheldon 13x78 from 1956) July 2019 and have learned a great deal from you. I had done a little machining before that but very little and crude at best. I'm not someone who is easily impressed by people but for someone who has no formal training in machining you impress me with your knowledge and your ability to explain it to those of us who are trying to teach ourselves. I've been an electrical, security and HVAC contractor for the last 40 years and spent a lot of time working on machines. I love to figure out how to make things work and how to improve on them. I've considered making my own KZhead channel as well but it seems like a lot of work and time to do it well like you do. I wonder how you find the time to not only do the work, film, edit, think up new ideas and still have a life outside of doing this? I remember you saying you moved to be closer to your dad who was having health issues and I know from experience that alone can take up a lot of time. Keep up the good work.
This is amazing! Drop me an email (see About tab on my KZhead channel) and I’ll send her some stickers
She would love that. I will definitely send you an email. Thank you so much for replying. @@Blondihacks
Is it too early to let her do some real machining?
Quinn, you always teach us how to be efficient, practical and organized. Your calm and patience in every action is inspiring. In addition to teaching us the mechanical concepts of each piece created! Hugs here from Brazil
Awesome build, Quinn! I’m gonna build one, and use it to make my own milling machine. But first, I’m gonna need a, uhhh.. hmmm…. Milling machine. 🤔
Hey Quinn! You're doing great job! Thanks for sharing your approach.
Wow what a complicated solution to a simple process love it
That was very neat, despite the highly technical jargon you were using. Thanks, and Meow to Sprocket.
Excellent!! I love your videos and personality. A touch quirky and very much so fun. For the work you do (all the explaining), and your level of intelligence, it does not come off dry.
Can’t wait . Trophy Trophy
Always a pleasure to watch how you work in your shop! Nice recoveries on the ‘oops’ and a fabulous finished tool!
For the chain-drilling (with too much overlap) would there be any benefit to first drill every other hole? 1st, 3rd, 5th hole etc, and then the 2nd, 4th hole. So the material being drilled is symmetrical on the left to right axis.
Reverse cuts are ideal, but a can of Add-A-Thou is handy if the part is too big to fit in the mill.
Non-machinist question, could you have used paper as a shim when milling the bevel to save filing or would that have been too thick?
Or more precisely some strip of calibrated shim under the gib and the sacrificial square, it certainly wouln't be too thick, but much more consistent in thickness. Nice job as always...
@@jeanbarbier9448shim stock is ideal, but paper in this day and age is also surprisingly uniform. I've mic'd paper plenty of times when I need that extra "fudge" factor for a job. A little spray of cutting oil or wd-40 will make it compliant enough to tap out a few tenths when you need it, but still support a light load. TBH, paper is a last resort for this kind of stuff, but it works 😅
Came to post this but was beaten to it! Great video Quinn. I love how you openly share your mistakes and how you resolve them. You're just like us 😃
To the OP, I just realized no one directly answered your question (myself included). Most paper you will run across is between .003" to .004" thick and would have worked just fine for the job in question. Sometimes we can get caught up in the "well, in a perfect world" type of thinking, but in machining the right tool is whatever you have on hand that will get the job done. And that includes paper.
quinn for president of earth
Those overlapping chain bore holes are easier to make, when u bore first the 1th, than the 3th, and than the 2th hole, so its always in ballance.
Amazing result Quinn! This looks fantastic, thanks for sharing with us as always.
I've envisioned a simplified version of this for woodworking. I might have to build it now.
Looks like a very practical and ingenious addition to your tool box. Thanks for sharing Quinn!
I learn so much from you and all the contributions from everyone. Love this channel!
Adding the CAD diagram of the part you are currently making is a nice touch.
What a great project. Now my head is full of ideas for upgrades on some of my most used jigs. Thanks!
Very useful addition to the shop thanks so much for sharing.
Great job! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience!
This is really great! I love your videos, your sense of humor and of course the quality of your projects. The best hobby machinist channel ever, which makes my saturdays 🥰
another excellent video Quinn, thank you. I look forward to each Sunday night (in Oz) to see your latest creation. I am making quick change tool holders for my lathe and this video has given me some ideas to refine the process.
Hi Quinn, I just wanted to say that I think your videos are simply delightful. I hope to get into hobby machining in the future, thanks in part to you. Thank you for doing what you do, and have a nice weekend!
Neat job Quinn, useful jig for the shop.👍👍
Wow, Quinn! You really outdid yourself with your belt sander rounding jig! Very kind of you to attribute the idea to me, but your version of it is head and shoulders above my simple clamped jig. Though, my simple version does work, yours is so much more elegant, and I'm sure it's great fun to use. One thing that I've found very helpful when rounding those small parts is to use a small pair of needle nose pliers (or tweezers even) to rotate them. It really helps save the tips of your fingers from getting sanded off! 😅 Well done and a great video on making dovetails!
Good idea! I did not like to have my fingers so close to the belt. 😅
Quinn, Thanks for giving us a little break from the locomotive vids. Mike
Locomotive videos are less than 50% of my videos, for the record.
I worked with aluminium inlet manifolds and rotary burrs for gas flowing and we found that neat parrafin was a good cutting fluid. When I used to knurl, the trick was not to have the knurling tool dead perpendicular and knurl a longer pass
That duck got me. 😂 I'll need a mascot too... 👍
That's a nice neat little tool. Dove tails a fun and satisfying to make. I made a Fret wire bending machine years ago based on a verticle dovetail with roller skate bearings for the bending rollers. It works a treat.
As you said, great for other fixtures as well. Band sawing circular parts comes to mind. Also custom cross slide for a drill press.
one suggestion from experience with similar fixtures, have a sacrificial plate that bolts on top of the mechanism for drilling the holes and setting teh pins in. at some point you will need another pin location that you just cant fit, and will have to remake teh whole dovetail mechanism again and refit. whereas with a top plate, you just need a random bit of stock that you drill the right bolt hole pattern in to fit to the mechansim.
Hey Quinn the mighty, hello from Germany. What a great end to my day! Love your channel.
Nice job yet again. We shared this video on our homemade tool forum this week 😎
So for the gibs, I have 2 suggestions. 1- If you ALSO cut a 30 degree angle on the sacrificial piece, you can can use clamps 'the other way' to hold it against the vise-jaw side of the dovetail. 2- If you place a 5 thou (or so) shim-stock under it before you fixture it (between it and hte bottom of the sliding piece), you just have to get sub-5 thou to the aluminum (in this case), and be guaranteed a nice sliding fit within a few thou.
I love your work!
I chain drill first with a drill bit leaving a small land between the holes then remove the lands with a slot drill, used like a drill bit.
Nice and well thought out project.
Great stand alone tool episode Quinn.
Cool project and as you say potentially a base for many tools!
I've been using the same diamond shape cutting tool ever since I got in to machining and I use it for 99% of my turning. I made my own holder and it works great. I have other cutting tool holders with carbide inserts but can never get same surface finish as my diamond tangential cutter.
Nicely designed and built Quinn, right hand thread means its failsafe, purchasing these is mega expensive 👏. Thanks for sharing
I love watching your videos while designing stuff in CAD and printing it, you're definitely an inspiration. I wonder how much time you have to spend on your hobby and how do you keep pushing yourself continuing to churn out projects. Cheers
Lovely work! Thanks for sharing 👍 🇬🇧
When I used to work in the shop, producing an off standard reamed hole could be produced by grinding a radius on each side of the drill where the point angle meets the side cutting edge. The drill is easily resharpened for regular use again.
Consider making the fixture adjustable along the slotted table by use of (1) a saw cut in the piece fitting into the slot then (2) a countersunk clearance hole and (3) a flat head screw that in arranged so that its tapered head spreads the slot when pulled up. The pulling up is achieved by a knob on top if the flush top is not important. You will want to recess the guide block into the bottom of the fixture. This works well with my wooden fixtures used on a table saw. If the flush top is important to you then maybe some clever hobby machinist can figure a way to arrange a wedge to spread the block that is tightened/loosened via a set screw along the side of the fixture. Keep the vids coming!
So I'm not sure if this actually works, but what if when chain drilling, you do every other hole, then come back and do the rest? That way, there's equal amounts missing on both sides of the hole. That might make it so the drill doesn't try to wander as much.
I have said this on a few of her videos where she is chain drilling and it 100% does work and is a good technique.
This would only work if the drill doesn’t not break thru on both side. Also an endmill works as well for this.
Another job well done!
On a previous job we used to have similar dovetail slides on the machines with bench grinders bolted to them to sharpen bandknife blades We used to have them pressed in from above (made out of round barstock in the lathe) this way your not relying on a small bolt to hold the nut unless you make the nut larger and recess it into the top piece
Quinn I fancy myself as an OK machinist, but I always learn a bunch of tips and tricks when I watch your videos. Thanks, well done.
Toolmaker work excellent job skilled with precision. Good Video
Lovely work, well done 👍👍
Ms Quinn, I discovered your channel by accident a couple of days ago. You have my addicted LOL.... I really like your presentation and your methods. Explaining your thoughts on the fly is fantastic. P.S. Now I know how dovetails are cut for the machines. Thanks for what you do...
really enjoyed this. Great Work, very inspiring.
Line boring the two journals at the same time might have been fun, if a bit overkill. Thank you Quinn! Very enjoyable.
A thought: For the height of the gib when you set it up in the dovetail, could you not have thrown a feeler gauge underneath the gib and made the cut. Then your cut would make the gib a little shorter and you could avoid the hand filing.
Haven't checked in since you were first setting up the new shop (have some projects to binge it looks like) -- just wanted to say the new setup is looking great! I hope to someday achieve half as much garage Zen.
Thanks Quinn, helps a lot!
Just wonderful !
I'm realizing now that I've never actually WATCHED your Mill Skills - Reverse Cuts video, I'll have to go look for it when I finish this one! ;)
That turned out beautifully! Perhaps for other pin sizes you can turn adapter pins that are all a standard size on one end and then the target size on the other. Could even offset the target size end so it maintains a constant distance from the end of the platen. That way you can get all the needed pin sizes and only have to put one or two holes in the slide platen.
This was a great video! I now have the urge to buy a dovetail cutter to have a go myself! I have 0 need for anything with a dovetail currently but now i just need to cut one in some scrap 😂😂
Depth offset using feeler gauge.... If you put an ohm meter on the spindle and stock, and then lower till you get contact, your right on and can offset from there. A higher current can spark and give clearance if you need, but there are many factors affecting spark...humidity, voltage.etc..💕🤗,jpk
Really nice work. The downside of aluminum (and stainless) for this kind of application is that eventually, and when most inconvenient, some grit will scrape the thin natural oxide layer off the sliding aluminum surfaces and they'll gall and be welded together. You can dramatically increase the lifetime by anodizing. It's why weld-on fittings are basically the only non-anodized aluminum tubing fittings you find on Summit Racing, etc. Swagelok stainless fittings actually have a coating of silver inside the nuts as a permanent form of anti-seize. You can probably do type 1 or 2 without changing the dimensions, but if you wanted to go all out with a type 3 hard coat for maximum life then you'd want to increase the clearance by a few thousandths. Often friendly local anodizing shops will do one-off parts for cheap if you're willing to wait for it to be added to someone else's batch. You could mask the top surface so as to not make it harder to drill.
Nicely done and I do like the Canadian right side insert views LOL. And I may have to send one of my not so surley quckers your way to mellow out your fine pointed head plastic feather friend again LOL. Your work is fantastic and thanks for sharing.
Thanks Quinn
Don't need more hole in the table, to make it adjustable cut another bar for the table slot about 3" longer then on the ends drill a hole 1" from the end to fit a small flush head screw. Once hole it drilled and count sink made so the screw head is flush then cut a slot on each end about 3/4" passed the hole. What this will do is as you tighten a nut the flat head will push the bar wider to lock it in the slot so you can use the full width on your sanding belt.
That is one super duper mad fancy part rounder slider. Gotta love the massive over-engineering. The gib is a thing of beauty. If it wears out, could be easily replaced. Around year 2053, maybe. :-)
"If you're building your own lathe…" Sure, just drop that out there. THIS, THIS is how we get problematic lines like, "Look around you… can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe?" (Sam Rockwell as Guy Fleegman). It's Galaxy Quest / Blondihacks crossover time.
Hello, internet. My name is Quinn, and never give up, never surrender!
A solution for side-to-side repositioning a longer bar with slit ends under the jig extending past the jig with tapered holes for screws in the slit bar will expand and clamp the jig in place.
Great idea and great gob 👌
A tip about bolting stuff down. I'm not a machinist but for machines I don't use daily I bolt on a block of wood and put them in my end vice when I need them. This way they don't slide around but can also be put away in a second.
Yah I'll be making one of those
If you havent, give one of those 1/2" 3 flute high helix aluminum endmills a try. I've stopped chain drilling on my light machines with those , they make an insane fountain of chips fly up out of the slot so I'm often doing 1/2" deep or more full width slot in one shot with them. Crazy tools. Suuuuper sharp and low machine loads. Run em Ap warp 9 with a hair of mist coolant or wd40 ideally but they're pretty tolerant regardless. Also good for taking that last .0005" finishing cut on steel because theyre so sharp
Awesome job 😊
That's pretty awesome...
If, instead of a "funky shape" you need more of a "disco shape", you'll need a set of three Gibbs - Barry Robin and Maurice.
We didn't get a 'yatzy' on the lathe when making the bushing.... how disappointing. But we had 'catawampus' (avoidance) on the gib. Marvellous 🤩
Welcome back!
Excelente ,como todos tus trabajos ,gracias por hacernos disfrutar con tus mecanizados