Today we’re starting on a spindle lock for the G0704 mill. I’d like to eventually do some vertical broaching in the mill, but the Grizzly G0704 has no provision for locking the spindle, so there’s no way to keep the … Continued

Today we finish up the Z motor upgrade for the CNC mill by measuring, making a motor mount and installing the motor and driver. We also spend some time tuning the motor performance in MACH3. And as long as we’re … Continued

I’ve been struggling with the Z axis on my CNC mill for a couple of years now, and I’ve decided it’s time to upgrade to a larger NEMA34 motor and driver. Today we’re starting out by designing and 3D printing … Continued

Today, we’re starting work on the diamond grinder. The first step is to build an enclosure for the motor electronics. We 3D print a spacer with 3D-printed flexible o-ring seals and use the CNC mill to cut out openings in … Continued

Today, we’re starting a new project to build a diamond grinder for sharpening carbide tools. Most notably, we need to sharpen carbide hand scraper inserts. I have an old lathe motor lying around, left over from my VFD upgrade, so … Continued

This is a fun little project that sprang forth from an idle comment in a previous video. I needed a large screwdriver to tighten the handle insert in my hand scraper. So, we’re building one. In this video, I show … Continued

This week, we’re finishing up the hand scraper by making the handle insert. The insert screws into the back of the handle, locking it onto its taper and providing an anchor point for handle accessories. We also do a little … Continued

This week, we’re making a protective cover for the carbide insert on the end of the hand scraper to keep it from getting chipped when it’s not in use. We design the cap in Fusion 360, present some tips and … Continued

This week we’re making a 3D-printed handle for the hand scraper. It’s shaped to fit tightly on the tapered tang we machined previously and will be locked in place using a threaded metal insert. In this video, I show some … Continued

Today we’re machining the insert clamp for the hand scraper. The clamp is recessed on the bottom so it gets proper bearing on the insert, and it has a nice CNC interpolated curve on the front edge. We’re milling these … Continued