Sharpening Barrel Trimmers/Pen Mills

[Ron in Drums PA]

On the trimmer you will notice a curved section and a flat section. The flat section is what trims the blanks

The flat section touches the side of the wheel and the curved section touches the curve of the wheel. You need to touch both the side and the front of the wheel at the same time. When you see sparks flow over the trimmer evenly on both sides, you are doing it right.

The difference between dull and sharp is about .005", so touch the wheel with the trimmer and pull away as soon as you see the sparks flow. If the trimmer gets warm you are grinding too much.

It’s a good idea to practice placing the trimmer to the wheel with the power off until you get the hang of it.

 

[JimGo]

Thanks Ron! I was using the small, flat, diamond file that I got from HF to go across the top surface, flattening it out better. That seemed to work well, but I'll have to give your method a try to see if that works better for me.

 

[William Young]

my biggest problem with sharpening them is to get all four cutters the exact same length.
if one is very slightly longer it will be doing all the cutting and it won't do a good job of it compared to more of them touching the wood at the same time.

any tips on trueing them up so they are all the same length would be appreciated.
i was thinking of taking mine to a sharpening service but hopefully a tip here will prevent me from having to do that.
w.y.

p s
sorry about the lower case one finger typing since my ww accident .
hopefully that will be corrected within a few weeks.

 

[JimGo]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery William. If I recall correctly, Paul_in_OKC was offering a sharpening service for a pretty good price.

 

[PenWorks]

I secound for sending them to Paul, he sharpend three of mine and they came back better than new. I tried to sharpen one myself on the wheel and Paul managed to salvage it []

 

[Randy_]

Originally posted by William Young
<br />...my biggest problem with sharpening them is to get all four cutters the exact same length....any tips on trueing them up so they are all the same length would be appreciated....

If you are using a diamond file or some sort of stone, it is just like filing a lawn mower blade. Count strokes and use the same number on each cutter. It won't be perfect, but it will be darn close!!

If you are using a grinder of some sort, probably the only way to do an accurate job would be to make up some sort of jig. If you don't want to fool with hand sharpening, your best bet is probably Paul.

 

[William Young]

who is paul and what is okc.
i live in canada. can paul help me or should i try my local sharpening shop that does all my planer and jointer knives and table saw blades etc.
w.y.

 

[Randy_]

William: Paul Huffman is an accomplished machinist who lives in OKC.... Oklahoma City, Texas. He makes some very nice pen vises which are occasionally seen for sale here at IAP and he also sharpens pen mills.

"...Thanks, Rudy. (checks in the mail ) Seriously, the offer is still there. $10 for the first one, $5 each for additional ones. If you send your drill bits in with the mills, I will touch them up as well for .50 each...."

For you, the postage may be a killer. Your best bet would be to see if you could find someone locally who could do the work for you.

 

[alamocdc]

I thought Oklahoma City was in Oklahoma.

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

William said
<br />my biggest problem with sharpening them is to get all four cutters the exact same length. if one is very slightly longer it will be doing all the cutting and it won't do a good job of it compared to more of them touching the wood at the same time.

You are right, but if you look at the photo closely you will see that I am not touching the top of the cutters. Because of that the height of the cutters will remain the same.

 

[Paul in OKC]

Originally posted by alamocdc
<br />I thought Oklahoma City was in Oklahoma.

It is, but you gotta know how these Texas poeple think sometimes[]

 

[JimGo]

Ron,
Have you "worn out" a barrel trimmer yet? That is, have you sharpened it to the point that the cutting edge is so thin that it breaks or just isn't usable any more? If so, how many sharpenings did that take? Just curious.

Thanks!

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

JimGo said
<br />Ron,
Have you "worn out" a barrel trimmer yet? That is, have you sharpened it to the point that the cutting edge is so thin that it breaks or just isn't usable any more? If so, how many sharpenings did that take? Just curious.

Thanks!

Not yet, but I'm sure it will happen sooner or later.

I never tried this . . .
Do you know those little grinding wheels that you can chuck into a drill press? You know the ones with a flat bottom? If you can align the drill head and the table perfectly square you might be able to get a little more mileage out of the trimmer.

I've worn out a bowl gouge and replaced it. That is probably the easiest thing to do with the barrel trimmer when you can't sharpen it anymore.

 

[alamocdc]

Originally posted by Paul in OKC
<br />

Originally posted by alamocdc
<br />I thought Oklahoma City was in Oklahoma.

It is, but you gotta know how these Texas poeple think sometimes[]

Hey, wait just a minute there. I am a Texas people. [] I'm not sure that Randy ain't a transplant though. []

 

[Ryan]

The one thing I have leaned through trying to sharpen my own mill is it did not work after[!] I called CSUSA to find out what I did wrong and they said do not put a stone down and run all 4 wings on it at the same time. The wings have a slight taper on them so that the brass is trimed just a hair shorter then the wood. They said if you ran all 4 wings on the stone at the same time it will not cut anymore.

I bought a new mill[V][]

Paul is this something you can fix? If you grind just the back side as shown above it should work fine. I just wish I had thought of this before I messed my old one up.

Ryan

 

[Rifleman1776]

If it works for Ron, fine. Can't argue with success. We have had this debate before. Eagle and I have exchanged comments about this technique and we don't agree. I claim that if you file the flat side, the tapered top is bound to shorten. My sharpening technique is basically no different than sharpening any chisle. Hone the edges. Yes, counting strokes can minimize variation between cutters. I use the Ez-Lap and it does just fine. I also have used a 1" belt grinder. A fraction of a second touch is all that is required, plus a lot of care as too much can be removed with too much time or pressure.

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

Ryan said
<br />The wings have a slight taper on them so that the brass is trimed just a hair shorter then the wood. They said if you ran all 4 wings on the stone at the same time it will not cut anymore.

As far as I know, all barrel trimmers cut flush and will not cut a tube a hair shorter. If you check around you will find that there are 11 different sized pilot shafts and two different sized trimmer heads. If what you say is true, there would be a need to match each pilot shaft and trimmer head to each different sized tube.

As to the secondary bevel, that sounds like it might be true.

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

Rifleman said
<br /> I claim that if you file the flat side, the tapered top is bound to shorten.

Yes it will shorten after time and when it does (after 10 or more sharpenings) you buy a new trimmer head. Nothing lasts forever.

Look at it this way, the life of a trimmer head (just a guess) is 2000 blanks (1000 pens). How much will you send on sandpaper for those 2000 pens? I bet you will have spent allot more than the cost of a new trimmer head. Compared to sandpaper, trimmer heads are cheap.

 

[Paul in OKC]

I have reworked a couple of UGLY pen mills. (No names mentioned to protect the purpetrators[]) BTW, Billy, my brother just moved back to Springfield so if I can ever get up to see him, we'll have to see about a get together. (I lived in Enon area for about 8 years.)

 

[alamocdc]

Originally posted by Paul in OKC
<br />I have reworked a couple of UGLY pen mills. (No names mentioned to protect the purpetrators[]) BTW, Billy, my brother just moved back to Springfield so if I can ever get up to see him, we'll have to see about a get together. (I lived in Enon area for about 8 years.)

Be glad to, Paul. Just give me a shout. Who knows, Alan (arjudy) may want to join us. I think he lives in Springfield. I haven't met him yet, but I've been wanting to.

 

[Ryan]

Originally posted by Ron in Drums PA
<br />

Ryan said
<br />The wings have a slight taper on them so that the brass is trimed just a hair shorter then the wood. They said if you ran all 4 wings on the stone at the same time it will not cut anymore.

As far as I know, all barrel trimmers cut flush and will not cut a tube a hair shorter. If you check around you will find that there are 11 different sized pilot shafts and two different sized trimmer heads. If what you say is true, there would be a need to match each pilot shaft and trimmer head to each different sized tube.

As to the secondary bevel, that sounds like it might be true.

Ron,

There would not be a need to match pilot shafts to the trimmer heads, because the pilot shafts are the in the center. The brass tube is next. Then the wood. No matter what size pilot shaft you put in it will alays cut in that same order because the uphill of the angle on the wing is closest to the center. This will always cut the brass tube a hair shorter than the wood. If you still do not think this sounds right a quick call to CSUSA will confirm this. They also said if you are going to sharpen the tips of the mill only do them 1 wing at a time. This way you can not loose the taper on it.

Also as stated in my post your picture of the way you are grinding yours will work. I am even going to try it my self. CSUSA recommended only sharpening the flat side of the wings. I believe this is the way Old Griz does his.

Ryan

 

[Randy_]

Originally posted by alamocdc
<br />I thought Oklahoma City was in Oklahoma.

Excuse #1: Didn't figure a Canuck would know where Oklahoma was!![]

Excuse #2: Texas is fixin to annex Oklahoma and teach them how to play football!![][](Just kidding, Paul. You guys have had some great teams in the past few years. Now it is our turn.)

Excuse #3: I am an immigrant and don't know anything about geography West of the Mississippi??[][][]

Excuse #4: CA fumes![}]

Excuse #5: Just plain stupid!![:I][:I]

Excuse #6 The Astros won the World Series?? I thought they played hockey??

Let's see...do we want to do a Letterman Top Ten?? I think not??

 

[Randy_]

Originally posted by Rifleman
<br />...I claim that if you file the flat side, the tapered top is bound to shorten...

100% correct, Frank!! If you use a light touch and a fine diamond fine, it won't change much; but it will change. Anyone who doubts this can make themselves an exagerated drawing of the cutting edge and then draw a simulated sharpening and it will be obvious that some shortening will occur.

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

Originally posted by Ryan
<br /> The wings have a slight taper on them so that the brass is trimed just a hair shorter then the wood. They said if you ran all 4 wings on the stone at the same time it will not cut anymore.

I just looked at my trimmer head and the wings are perfectly flat, no taper at all.
When I trim barrels, the shavings that comes off are nice, very thin ribbons.
I've never noticed on any of my pens that the tube extends out beyond the wood.

I don't know, maybe it's possible my trimmer head is a different brand.