Making Metal DOVETAIL JOINTS
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- čas přidán 21. 09. 2020
- #Dovetail #dovetailjoints #metalproject
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Dovetail Joints are a traditional slide mechanism that can be used for joinery also, especially in woodworking. It is a classical slide mechanism for milling machines, and a lot of metal cutting machines, that have moving parts that need to bear a lot of loads and moving in a very precise way. It's a way of creating a very precise mechanical movement.
In this video, I'm going to cut a dovetail, female on one side and male in the other. We're going to make a couple of these so that they fit together. - Věda a technologie
I am only half way through and I spot the brilliant idea of using a spring on the parallels. A KISS solution to a continuing problem during set up. That made my month! Thanks for the video and take care.
I like the spring holding the parallels to the vise jaws. Clever.
small details demonstrates lots of experience without saying a word.
Applications for dovetails in aluminum: astronomy. There are two standard dovetail mounts for amateur telescopes, the Vixen style or V mount, and the Losmandy style, or D mount. Both allow mounting the telescope to a mount, sliding it to achieve balance, and easily removing the scope.
You asked, I remember seeing an optical measurment tool from the late 60's or so that had a circular stage riding on a dovetail joint. I got to . talk with the scaper that did the final matching on it 24" Dia, with a 2 mircon runout. AMAZING man and tool.
Dovetails on heavy machines like a Bridgeport are very rigid. However, since you are interested in application, and usefulness, I see the biggest problem with them is uneven wear, and the difficulty and expense of maintaining and rebuilding, IE regrinding and scraping. I have always lamented the fact that beautiful, old machinery cannot easily and economically be restored to a precision condition. My 50 year old Bridgeport is a good example. Though I can still make good parts with it, the dovetail ways are quite worn. It would cost in the neighborhood of $4000 - $5000 to ship it out to be reground and scraped. Which is out of the question for me, as a hobby machinist. I have considered converting it to Linear Rails. Though difficult, it's not impossible and has been done. So my interest is in the comparison of the rigidity of Dovetails vs Linear Rails.
Yes I agree and your prices are quite right. Unfortunately it is both easier and usually cheaper to just go buy another machine less worn. Converting to linear rails is more of a project than is worth the resut. Liner rails are the current peak of tech in machine building for the ability to mfg them easier and their lower friction and higher speed.
Thanks for the nice quality video. I really enjoyed it.
If you can handle a bit of constructive criticism, I'd recommend you to add a bit more theory to the video next time. In this case the most interesting/important is how to measure the dovetails (there was 1 second of the video showing the measurement using dowel pins, but that's not enough;-) ) and how to make a new one matching an existing (unknown) one - that's I think the most common problem people out there encounter...
True, good point. We will get more in depth on dovetail cutting in upcoming videos, there is a lot more we want to explore with these cutters and the cutting methods.
@@TigermothRacingTV I know that if you are willing, and able to, take the time to help educate us there are many, myself included, that would be most grateful. Most people understand that this is your business, and as the saying goes, time is money, but whatever you could offer would be great. Thank you.
people are very fond of library ladders in their homes these days. I use dovetail joints for the floor track. In the same vein, I have a small welder, and a plasma cutter, both telescope from a wall mount on dovetails. Sure, this is a more costly and time consuming method, but the nature of dovetails makes them a fail safe, and ultra long lasting track mechanism.
Nice, I like those applications, thanks for sharing!
Wow... nice 👍
I work with progressive dies and one of our dies stamps out HTT products, we have 3 of these dies, for construction and it has two dovetail blocks with gas springs in them., one on each side of the die. They help with forming the parts. Great video.
Nice application, thanks for sharing!
I just incorporated dovetails on my ball turning fixture, of course I had to include a gib. But adjustments for different diameters is a breeze!
Excelente trabalho meu amigo!!
Parabéns pelo conhecimento técnico!!!
Obrigado!
Your recommendation for a small vertical mill that doesn’t have plastic gears that I’m going to use to make sights for Black Powder target rifles as space is limited. Thanking you in advance Mark
I'd like to see a shop tour if you have one. I'll look around your site. I'm interested in the model of mill you are using. You are doing a good job of making videos so please keep it up.
Thank you! We will do a shop tour, I like seeing those too. The mill is a TRAK DPM2. We also have a 1/2 size knee mill which is a Grizzly G0695 and a benchtop 4x cnc mill called a SYIL X4.
We actually use a steel block in an aluminum body for robotic cutting. The steel block is only .5 x '1. So fairly small but this block needs to be able to slide for making adjustments. Was looking at this and give me an idea to make the adjustable block dove tail style but would have to design the block with a set screw in order to solidify the position in the aluminum. My biggest worry would be steel on aluminum is not the greatest combination when it comes to binding up and creating more issues during production as far as being able to make quick adjustments mid run.
Yeah when it comes to dovetails you should really use a gib to adjust tension and wear. Maybe a hard steel strip gib would work for your application?
Thanks for the video. I’m subscribed. It looked like you were climb cutting. Was there a reason for that?
Thank you. What is the reason you would conventional cut?
How do you only have 283 subscribers...? Awesome vid.
Haha right? Thank you!
Just wondering whether a dovetail cutter be mounted on lathe chuck and used cut dovetail joints same as done in this video..has anybody done that?
With a milling attachment or some way to hold your part, sure.
What was the diameter of the pins in relation to the depth for the 60 degree dovetail?
In this case I am not sure. I was just using 2 identical pins to copy a dovetail I had previously made.
What's the type name Brand and model of the drill bits please? I need it small size
I don't think we used any drills but the dovetail cutter is:
Shars.com #404-1901
What would it cost to have one of these dovetail linear sliders made in aluminium?
You can message me on Instagram and we can discuss your project:
@tigermothracing
Dovetail joints are used in male female bending dies of steel rule benders..like helmold rule benders..
Oh I see, I haven't seen those before, for mounting the dies, like on a quick change tool post on a lathe. Nice.
Would like to see the setup for a locking dovetail
One which has a taper on each piece, so that with a light hit, they stay in place until struck again...
I would cut them the same way, just program a taper whatever amount you want. To cut them on a manual mill would be a different animal.
@@TigermothRacingTV manual would be challenge.
Which is what I have..
@@eddaniels5006 probably not relevant anymore but you could angle the vise on your machine a bit using an indicator and trigonometry to get the right angle and cut a tapered dovetail that way.
Do you make dovetail joint slides like this for sale?
Not often but yes, these were for a sculpture project.
Why are you climb milling?
Probably to get the climb mill finish without programming the cut in 2 directions. Conventional would likely be faster.
Do you make and sell these dovetail joints?
We don't but we can, prototyping is most of what we do.