John B micro gravers

Leland Davis

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Someone was recently talking about the micro gravers JohnB posted on here years ago. I was making some up so I took a some photos of how I do it not sure it's right but works for me.
I asked my dentist for some used up carbide burs she gave me a pound of them that's a lot of burs.
The tubing is 3/32in square brass to fit my sharpening template the wire is from a marker flag it is a little more than mild steel if you ever tried to straighten one you know that. I use epoxy to glue in the wire leaving 3/8in to glue in the carbide burr on the end. Glue them up and shape to what ever I need. When carbide gets to short clamp back end in vise for a heat sink heat carbide till it comes out and glue in another bur simple and cheap.
Since John posted these I have started using them for almost everything. The only place I don't is on barrels and other small radius they do have a little flex that is unnerving to me. The top one in the last photo is shaped and ready to work.
I had to try a pinhead after seeing Sam do it. Mine is not the quality of Sam's but it can be done sorry about the photo taking a pic of an engraved pinhead is almost as tough as engraving it.
 

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Leland Davis

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Ryan I tried centennial carbide when people started talking about it on here. I was not impressed it had a tendency to shatter the tip. I find the burs to be better quality and the price is right. I have some GRS carbide gravers for tight radius work. The price of a graver to what I can earn with it is miniscule but I still like a bargain.
 

monk

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i used the "jb trick" as i called it. surely was a very great help in doing hobo nickels. it allowed getting in to areas that were far too difficult for regular gravers. using the dual angle sharpener i was able to do all the facets normally done on standard gravers. i did the xtra facets just to see if it could be done. this is worthwhile , easy to do, and certainly a low cost way to get tiny gravers.
 

Ryan138

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I‘m curiuos for the dimensions: how wide is one of the micro gravers? I ground mine down to 0.6mm width, it‘s made from high speed steel.

How large is the pin head?

Cheers

Ralf
1/16” carbide rod into a 3/32 brass square.
 

Leland Davis

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Ralf the pinhead measures .108in when I make these I taper it to a needle point then grind a 50 degree face and just a hint of a heel. When I did the pinhead my graver was .010in wide I used a 120 degree.
what I use most is about .040in wide which I think is close to your .6mm sorry I don't think in metric. The burs are already tapered so it is a quick job to finish them.
Leland
 

Adder

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I have tried this method with brass tubes and sewing needles instead of carbid burrs. Works good. Have to try this method.Thx for the tip.
 

Leland Davis

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monk, I just used 2 hard maple blocks in my vise jaws clamped the pin between with the head tight against the blocks.
 

monk

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leland: i'm also curious about yer 120. was it a njormal 120 with much side grinding> or did you simply start with small stock and grind to shape?
 

Leland Davis

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monk, for the point used for the pinhead I tapered the carbide to a needle point then with a Lindsey templet and the power hone off I ground a 50 degree face then ground just enough heel to make a point so behind the heel it is still round. Hope this makes sense. When using for normal size engraving I use the shaping templet from Lindsey and grind the bottom into a standard parallel point. Sandy Popovich showed me the long tapered point and I like it works great for me but I may or may not know what I'm doing.
 
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