Detached-cutter Holders
Where amateurs experience inconvenience in making their tools from the want of a forge, the use of detached cutters in a tool holder will be found of the greatest advantage for outside work. Even in plain turning there must always be some special forms for cutting into odd corners and deep grooves; but with a good tool holder and a grindstone, which is an indispensable piece of furniture in every metal turner’s shop, the cumbrous array of slide-rest tools may be reduced to a few special forms and a very small box of cutters. These also possess another great advantage; for the spirit of the old adage quoted by Holtzapffel—
“He that would a good edge win
Must forge thick and grind thin,”
may be carried out far more conveniently than in the case of whole tools which are generally filed into shape before tempering, and when worn down must go to the fire again and have the process repeated. But the detached cutter admits of being tempered evenly throughout its whole length and ground up afterwards as long as it lasts, without going to the forge again to the deterioration of the steel.
The patterns of tool-holders are innumerable, but very few are good for general service, because most of them are arranged so that the natural sides of the cutter are used for the face or faces of the edge. Thus either the plan angle of the point is limited to the angles presented by the transverse section of the cutter employed, or else the section angle is fixed by the position in which the cutter is clamped. Holtzapffel’s arrangement is open to the first objection, Babbage’s to the second. To obviate this inconvenience, Prof. Willis arranged a holder which clamps the cutter at an angle of 55° from the horizontal line. Thus no side can be used either for the lower or upper face of the edge, but any faces can be ground upon it; and the plan and section angle of the edge may be varied at pleasure within the whole range available for metal turning. Prof. Willis’s holder for the cutter is almost a facsimile of his admirable tool-holder for the slide-rest, than which none is more convenient or can act more perfectly. But the arrangement is a little complicated for a cutter holder, and must be very carefully made with the knowledge of certain laws, if it is to insure a perfect grip of the cutter. It is also designed for the use of sound wire cutters which require filing flat on one side.
Adopting Willis’s inclination for the cutter I have found that all its advantages may be secured with a simpler form of holder and common square for steel for the cutter. The holder is simply the modification of an old pattern to suit the inclination of 55°, and the sketch needs little explanation beyond saying that the nick in the solid part should be rather less than a square angle, and made perfectly true all the way down, or, if anything, rather hollowed in the middle, so as to insure the greatest amount of pressure at the top and bottom, as otherwise the cutter might not sit quite true and firm. The angle at the end of the strap against which the cutter bears should be rather more than square, both to allow for any want of exact truth in the squaring of the cutter and to avoid the wedging action which would be set up on tightening the screw if this angle were less than square, as this could of course create a risk of splitting the strap. The end of the screw and the cup in which it fits should be round, as this allows of a little play and insures a truer grip in the strap than a pointed screw working into a conical hole. A perspective sketch of a detached cutter is added, with dotted lines to show how exactly the arrangement of the faces can be accommodated to the positions which have been shown to be the best in solid tools for the slide-rest.
D. Haydon.