? Home Made Power Hone

I have been looking back through the archives of this forum and I notice that several people have made their own power hones or have discussed the possibility.

What is the range of speed ( revolutions per minute ) that one would want in a power hone? I find that I have several small motors that might lend themselves to such a project. Are we talking about the speed of a record player or are we talking about the speed of a blender? ( Would you like that graver point frappe, ground, or liquified? )

Thanks for your input.

Francis

Try for a 78 rpm record player or maybe twice that.

Yes, I am that old.

Les Holmes

Hi Francis and welcome to the forum.

Be cautious of too higher speed making your own power hone (rpm) Blender speed maybe getting a bit too fast.

The initial shaping of the gravers can be done rapidly to knock them into your preferred shape. Power hone or bench grinder will do the job nicley depending on exactly what you want to do. Some of the tougher graver metals you can allow to heat up and it won't effect the temper..........but be very cautious about HSS steels etc as if allowed to get too hot they will burn the temper and render the graver tip useless.

The shaping is generally done on the top of the graver unless you are using the Lindsay grind or bulino style graver in which case the bottom of the graver has to be shaped as well.

Once shaped you don't need a lot of speed as you are only taking a very small amount of metal off the face. The heels can be done without even turning the hone on as a sliding movement will be enough to create the small heel that you need.

Also be aware that you will probabley use the hone for all sorts of stuff, not just gravers. A hone is ideal for shaping punches out of drill rod, shaping stippling tools etc etc etc.

So err on the side of caution and don't make the speed so high that it burns tools out. (plus there is the saftey side where you don't want it coming loose and acting like a frizbee around the workshop.

Cheers
Andrew

Thanks for the replies. I have been thinking about using an old phono turntable.

Les, I own some 78's. My 23 year old daughter wants them.

Andrew, I have been hand sharpening my gravers. Even by hand, I have noticed that the finer grits don't take very long to produce their effect.

If I get this together, I'll post some photos.

Francis

if you get much over 200 rpm, the hone will send the coolant flyin all over the place. not only that, the sharpening becomes very aggressive as the rpm is increased. i find a very safe and friendly coolant is plain old mineral oil. cleans easily off the hone with ordinary dish soap.

Your problem is torque in this project, you have to find something that will not slow down. Being able to change speed is a nice feature.

The two thing that do this the best are a Horizontal Rock polisher or a Drill press.
Both are meant to carry a load and will not slow down. You either buy a rock polisher
or build one. Looking on google will get a lot of designs and then there is always ebay.

A drill press can be any size really as long as your able to chuck up the disc. The involves making a arbour out of a bolt and two nuts, you will also have to correct any
wobble by using shim washers that are slightly tapered. Again there are pre-made
arbours for disc that you can just buy. They for sanding disc that are use in body grinders, where are used in common power drill.

Record players are under-powered.

Talk to ya later,
Jim

Home Made Power Hone

Francis

Harbor Freight has a small 8” floor model drill press on sale for $49.99 now.

Would make a swell Home made sharpening system.

I just purchased one for roughing out gravers.

See the Carl Bleile tutorial http://www.handengravingforum.com/showthread.php?t=3058

Ken

I used a ceiling fan motor turned upside down. Seems to have plenty of torque, and a slow enough speed .