Dull Pen Mill...

Re: Dull Pen Mill...

Tony Rozendaal

The way I do it is to turn the mill around on the shaft and put it at the end and tighten the set screw. Use the shaft as a handle.

Dress the wheel (if it's a stone wheel).

Set the tool rest to the correct angle.

Keep the mill square to the wheel.

Keep the flute you are sharpening level - not high or low on one end or the middle.

Lightly touch the mill to the spinning wheel.

Inspect the grind and make adjustments as necessary.

Use a digital calipers to keep the height of all the flutes the same, measuring from the sharpened edge to the top of the mill.

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Hope this helps.

Re: Dull Pen Mill...

David Walser

Use a diamond file to hone the flat side of the pen mill's cutting blades. Do not touch the beveled portion of the blades. This will prevent your changing the bevel angle or, more importantly, making some of the blades shorter than the others. Of course, this only works if there isn't a nick that requires grinding.

David Walser's advice

terry quiram

is spot on. I would add make sure to do an equal number of strokes on each blade.

Do some research on the IAP site *LINK*

Dick Coers

There was a guy who had a setup on his metal lathe to index and sharpen the mills. Everyone raved about his work, and he started a little service business. At some point, nearly everyone moved on to sanding the ends of the blanks to bring them to proper length and square. It's a far superior process, zero chip out on every style of material. Many clever systems were developed to use center punches and a sanding disc on the lathe. The most clever ones offset the blank so you are sanding dead center on the disc. Rick Herrell sells one in aluminum for $40.




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