John B micro gravers

[Leland Davis]

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.

 

[Leland Davis]

I forgot something Thank You JohnB for this tip and all you do.

 

[Ryan138]

I forgot something Thank You JohnB for this tip and all you do.

To get rid of your flex get longer pieces of carbide from centennial carbide. Have it run all the way through the tube instead of partially in.

 

[Leland Davis]

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.

 

[John B.]

I forgot something Thank You JohnB for this tip and all you do.

Thank you Leland. Only trying to pass on some of the help that others gave me.

 

[rweigel]

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

 

[monk]

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]

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]

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

 

[rweigel]

Leland, Thanks a lot for the dimensions!

Ralf

 

[Adder]

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.

 

[monk]

leland: what sort of fixture did you use to hold the pin? just curious

 

[Leland Davis]

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

 

[monk]

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]

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.