Pin Router Arm (Pt. 2)

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Pin Router Arm (Pt. 2) - Styli

11/3/2008 8:31:00 AM by tikka

PIN ROUTER ARM

Part 2

In this part of the blog , I will take you through the setting making of your unique and custom styli.

Here are a few of the styli I have made for for this jig.

A. 1/2"

B. 1/4"

C. 1/8"

D. 1/16"

E. Scribe point

If you have access to a metal turning lathe, then I guess this is even simpler than my method, but I do not have access to metal turning lather, I had to improvise.

To make the stylus B to E, it is pretty straight forward, I took a piece of M8 threaded bar, about 4" long and inserted it into the chuck of my wood turning lathe and tightened securely. I set the speed to about 1000 R.M.P.

The amount of M8 protruding is about 3/8". To remove the waste material I used a coarse file to remove the bulk of the material, then switched to a finer (finishing/smoothing)) file to take the last few thou from the stylus.

Note: on the files I use, one edge is serrated, the other is smooth, I use the smooth side of the file facing the chuck at all times. If you do not have a smooth side, then you may want to place a washer over the M8 bar to protect the chuck jaws.

Here I am finishing off the 1/8" stylus. Light touch is required so as not to remove too much material. I repeatably check the diameter using a digital caliper.

It is important that the entire length of the stylus in parallel along its length (3/8").

I stop about 1/1000" too big, then switch to 100 grit, then 180 grit emery paper to polish a little more, then a final polish on my honing wheel.

When I wanted to make a 1/2" guide, obviously the guide is larger than the bar being used 8mm (5/16").

My solution, was to jam two nuts at the end of the M8 bar, I then heated the fixture and melted solder in the top an bottom joints to stop them coming apart-

I mounted the stylus into the chuck the same as the previous stylus’s I has made, but because I was going to be removing the points from the nuts first, I increased the speed of the lathe to 2000 r.p.m. , so the file would give a smoother cut over the ridges.

You can see the results in the picture. I still have to figure out what to do, if I ever need to go bigger than 1/2", but not a problem in the foreseeable future.

I made a few more styli since I started this blog, from right to left (1/2", 3/8", 1/4", 3/16", 1/8", 1/16", scribe point, centering point) when you need a new or additional one, just make it to size you need in a few minutes.

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