Making lots of pallets, blades, and screws. / contraptioncollection Check out the Carbide Content Podcast if you like listening to machining discussions. Editing by Chuck Cascio
He seems like the kind of guy that will lose interest in the project once the manufacturing setup is perfect, and never sell many. Because designing and creating is more fun than repetitive baliscissors machine go brrrr.
Hey man, I'm a tool design engineer and it has been really cool watching you continue to improve. Your fixturing is really clean. It really makes me want to get my own machines.
I've been watching you since probably the beginning and you seem to have the same problem as I have- perfectionism and getting everything absolutely perfect. We both know that you probaby won't make enough money based on that. But you have one advantage over me as you keep on trying and working your way up, keep it up, you are a true inspiration. Thank you very much
I cannot wait for these to available for purchase. But I can and I want to wait for you to be content with your product and I have always been very happy watching your journey since almost day one. Keep up the awesome job!
Seeing all those videos and being a machinist myself, I cant wait to finally buy one! one really important part about machining thin parts is keeping them cool, doesn't matter if its milling or grinding. The slightest temperature and they start warping
Its been incredible seeing the innovation and the invention that goes into this product. Its also going to be great seeing the streamlining as you move forward
I really appreciate the effort you are putting into these scissors, and taking us through the process of making them. Your passion for it clearly shows. Thank you for making these videos, they remind me of an earlier time in my career working with people around CNCs. I would design parts for them to make, but it really helps to see the level of skill it takes to make a high quality tool. I look forward to when these scissors are for purchase, because they will be worth whatever you charge. You are putting in so much time and effort to make them at scale with no compromise on your desired quality. That takes real dedication.
With your blocks they might not be same height due to the walls holding them off the base of the fixture as the walls are now angled Also we make some blades and yes the upright and using the side of the endmill works amazingly
I’ve been following this project ever since your second video came out. I think, no matter the price, I will end up picking these up for purely the fact that you’ve dedicated 4 years of your life to making this project absolutely perfect and I love that. You’re doing great man keep up the good work and I hope to someday have one of these in my hands!
in a shop setting, the "real" way to measure countersinks is by using a go/nogo gauge with pins that correspond to the upper and lower tolerance of the diameter of the countersink. the big one should glide on the surface over the countersink and not dip down into the countersink, where the smaller one is vice versa. It's more precise than you might think, but you have to get a feel for it.
@@ContraptionCollection I just put the screw in upside down and look if the head fits in. so instead of gluing an hex key to it, just hold it by the thread. not sure if its clear what i mean o.O
Its nice that you were able to get Grace Horne’s input she seems to have a lot of respect in the artisan scissor/ knife making world! She makes some cool stuff
Shot in the dark idea, have the tool path start in the middle of the blade at the thin part and radiate out from there, that way there is more material around the thinner area to provide stiffness while machining. Might even better if you cut it to thickness in one go, à la Joe pie turning small diameters on a lathe by taking large DOC in one go. Just a thought
Great progress! You can use pin gages to measure countersinks. Place the pin into the countersink and twist it, making sure to keep the pin perpendicular to the surface. If the countersink is larger than the pin, the pin will stay inside the countersink. If it is smaller, the pin will spin out. Keep checking and increasing the pin size until it spins out. The last pin size that doesn't spin out is your countersink diameter (within .001"-.002") It's a hard technique to explain, but it makes sense once you try it and is a cheap effective way to measure countersinks. To get rid of the step from the large face mill on the bevel grind, use an L-shaped toolpath, starting at the pivot end and feeding out off the tip. Make sure there is a large radius on the corner of the L to make it a smooth turn. This will keep the tool engaged with the part through the entire cut instead of going back over part of it and gouging in. Have you considered vacuum fixturing to hold the blank down? You might still need to use screws, but it would be a good way to keep the center part of the blade down. You can buy relatively cheap vacuum pumps meant for air conditioning repair that would work well. Adding a small air tank between the pump and the fixture would ensure you had enough vacuum at all times and allow you to turn the pump off and run for a while.
Hey David, great talking with you at Blade West bud. This is my first comment ever on RU-vid. Just want to say keep at it and keep moving forward. Hoping you are able to relax on some of your concerns that are not true concerns for anyone other than us ocd makers then fix the areas that are legitimate with the KISS method you spoke of in this video. Just wanted to drop a line and say that much at least and nice meeting you. Always here for you if you need anything!
Nice to meet you in person as well! Thanks for the kind words and encouragement. I made big progress right before blade show and even bigger progress this week. This is the most optimistic I've been about selling the baliscissors in a long time.
@@ContraptionCollection That’s great to hear. What you had there is perfectly good enough to put in peoples hands as we talked about. Of course people of different types will be purchasing these so that’s just what it is. People destroys Balis too. Yours has a complex button and freaking scissors on it bud! People will learn their individual baliscissors quickly. You’ve not designed and made something that will just fall apart with one wrong button push. The product is fine. And as for being able to make 10 of 10 perfect, good freaking luck lol. Balis themselves are very complex and by design made to be beat to death on purpose. You’ve added more complexity on top of what I can only produce 1 or 2 in 10 perfectly. Knifemaking is problem solving, that’s what we do. Can’t imagine anyone else has a 100% perfection rate either. Just want to see these in peoples hands which will definitely help alleviate your concerns. Listening to you stress over everything while holding a perfectly good product in my hand is my point. No negativity from me just think you’re overthinking and worrying on a level that isn’t reality…all good either way as that’s the beauty of making our own product. We can take it to whatever extent we want. But people freaking want these things!!! Congrats and waiting to see the next vid to see where your progress is🤛
Next step is to make a bolt driver and code a corresponding operation? About tool marks on the back of the blade: it may be a desirable feature. Or taken care of at the belt grinder like with 99,99 blades
It’s absolutely insane how much work you have put into this! Strive for perfection but realize you will most likely never achieve it. I hope one day I get to own one. As a tattoo artist the need for quality scissors and finding them is frustrating to say the least. I would love to have a holster to walk around with this piece of art walking around using it as much as possible. Keep doing what you do! Always happy to see the process.
Seeing how dedicated you are with this project still to date made me get up and work on my wooden bike frame project again. Gonna be great to hold the baliscissors in my hands one day.
Alec Steele just dropped a video on how scissors are made. These are reputable and hand-machined scissors and hopefully gives an idea of the steps and complexity involved.
To make the fixture blocks, you need to use a Sine Bar or Sine Plate. Use a flycutter for decent surface finish. Ideally, for both precision and surface finish, use a surface grinder. With a surface grinder, you could even transfer the loaded pallet from the mill to the SG for bevel finishing
hey man, just wanted to say i love your videos and hope you post again soon. i also hope everything is going good. keep up the good work man, truly inspiring
Its really nice seeing someone go from wanting a product to exist to making it then figuring out how to sell it, i swear your videos have gotten so much better, both production wise and audio wise. Hope you are able to get the tooling set up in a way that will really streamline your process. i dont CNC but i do use 3d printing on a daily basis, when in doubt about having a thou or two out double check the tramming. (most of my screw ups like that have been tramming screw ups)
Measuring the screen holes: you could make a piece that is the positive of the chamfer you want with a little handle at the end, like a screw with a reversed head. That you can stick into the chamfer. If the top is flush it's just right, if it sticks out or is under the surface you need to change the hole a bit.
Love those nice clean fixtures. Sometimes just getting the process to work is step one, speed it up after. Like make a process and then improve it. Two things that I have suffered through, if you want clean engraving mill the material and engrave in one op this leads to near 100% success. If you want to check chamfer either buy the chamfer Guage, a very esoteric device, or check with two sets of pins. One set of pins is the minor and major for top diameter, and another set for the bottom diameter. If you veryifythe angle of your tool it works quite well and is inexpensive. Can't wait to see where this journey goes. Good luck
I failed to mention that when checking chamfer with a pin it is important to consider the chamfer ground on the guage pin itself. Unless what you are making goes to outer space a normal pin will be fine but don't forget
One minor suggestion, which I'm sure someone else already made for you: Don't use pitbull clamps on both sides of the blocks, it can lead to weird variances you aren't expecting in regards to how the block fits. Make one side something static like a toothed gripper that way you always have the same reference datum to bank against.
I'm a machinist and let me tell you one thing; as you noticed with the pull-out machining the bolts - dont try to rush jobs all the time. I have several coworkers who sure works VERY fast and create good parts a lot of the time... BUT! It would be pointless to start counting all the times when I hear things crashing at their machines. From endmills and drills going at rapid speeds down into either a vice, part or even the table. Parts getting scrapped because their programs wasnt checked before running. Ive seen one guy literally scrap the same part FOUR TIMES because he wanted to rush it. Every time the material had to be ordered cause it was hella expensive. After the 4th time - he was begging one of the other guys to take over and make the part instead. Sorry for ranting :D At 9:15 when you're milling the blade I think you'll find getting an endmill with a larger radius will improve tool life. Cool pair of scissors you're making. Never even thought about "Baliscissors" before but it would be neat to own a pair =) Cheers!
I've made all sorts of fixtures(vacuum, side clamps, bolt down) to avoid having to buy a bunch of far more expensive fixturing products. My next evolution in fixturing I'm developing into is diy pneumatic sideways and downward pressing blocks that are far cheaper then the $1000+ precision pneumatic machinist clamping systems I'm finding online. Being able to open a valved manifold suplied with regulated compressed air and having multiple parts immediately be held with the same amount of pressure based on air PSI is so much better then tightening individual bolts. I'd highly recommend you look into developing fixtures with inbuilt pneumatic clamping or pressing blocks.
Im sure you already have a solution for your block height. However, my free advice is shim stock under the blocks flat face to set them all at the same height
Something you may want to try, they make a reverse cut endmill that pushes chips down during the cut instead of lifting up, it may keep the center of your parts from pulling up and gouging
You can achieve the indent if you really want with some simpler tooling. You can use a flat grinding wheel with an appropriate shank, then dress it to the desired contour. It's a bit of a process to do that, but then you don't have to buy a large diameter grinding wheel, and can use it in the cnc. There are a few things to consider, like how long the tool will hold its contour, the minimal speed at the roating center of the tool, and properly dressing the tool. I think dressing will be the easiest part: just clamp the dressing tool and locate it, then program a path that'll get the desired contour. There's also the math to keep the edges of the blade still precise without cutting into them, and still getting the contour. That can just be solver by running two grooves against each edge, instead of trying to make one. Also, I'd consider using magnetic locking, and then just locating surfaces, and integrating that into the fixture plate. It'll take a bit more initial design, but you get rid of the chatter in the middle, and don't have to program around the clamps, or switch fixtures as often
You are already using a Pierson work holding setup, so you should add some vacuum hold down functionality below the center section of the blade. This should help with the chatter, gouging, and minimize the tendency of the tool to grab the material and pull it up as it is cutting. It may not be. A perfect fix, but i bet it would make a pretty big difference.
I’m stuck in the middle of wanting him to blow up because his content is great and this idea is great and also wanting him to stay small so I can actually get a pair
One thing I noticed in other machining videos, machinists usually tap the part into position with a soft hammer (e.g. copper hammer for steel parts) so they sit really tight in their bed. It surprised me to see you only pushing the blocks in position with your hands. Maybe try using some kind of hammer with plastic face to push them in position. Another thing that came in mind, if you left a bit of coolant at the bottom of the pits for your blocks, it may have prevented the block to sit all the way at the bottom. Small groove to collect such coolant could help too. But I'm no machinist, don't take my suggestions too seriously.
13:30 Maybe ballmill all the blocks to the angle that you need while they're all clamped in place, could also be a repeatabillity issue so you could use bolts to the main fixture body to make sure it's pulled flat, or maybe use a torque rench. Idk, I mostly use fixturing for one off parts, but just a suggestion, love these videos.
I love watching the process of designing the production tooling. Hopefully only a couple of companies attempt making their own knockoffs, but maybe they'll be better knockoffs if they also watch this whole series. I certainly look forward to your eventual reviews of their knockoffs of your design.
I was going to recommend tooling ideas, but they would just comlicate the matters and add tangents. Your methodology is very interesting and entertaining. Thanks for sharing.
They make countersink/chamfer gauges made for measuring those types of features. I have always just used a high quality ball bearing or gauge ball, and then measure from the top of the ball to the top of the surface of the part. You can then use some math or CAD to draw everything out and figure out what that dimension is supposed to be.
It may be worthwhile to put some thread inserts, like helicoils or timeserts, into the pallet. Repeated torquing of those (stainless?) screws will start to muck up the aluminum threads.
My idea would be roughing with the big cutter and then surface grind them, the issue is that this adds another step. Other idea would be small mag chucks which could be angled by 5°. Or a big fly cutter as a finishing pass.
I wonder if it would make sense to make each one of those little angle blocks a tiny vacuum fixture to help hold the blade down while machining. It really helps to at least have a 4th axis for stuff like this, as soon as any kind of angles are involved a 3 axis mill is a total hinderance.
if you cut the bevel with the step over going from the thick to the thin side youll be pushing the thin edge down against the fixture instead of trying to pull it up with the end mill.
For your problem of needing a huge diameter cutter to make round dips on the blade you don’t need a large diameter you could do it with a 40mm cutter but instead of taking normal cuts you can angle the blade. This may be confusing and sry for not being clear but i can’t think of a simpler way to explain it other than making a drawing. So imagine you have the cutter and draw a line across the x axis of it with your blade bellow it with the point facing the back of the machine and the but facing the front. Now with that line through the cutter use it as an imaginary bevel and rotate the cutter so as the shank is further tirades the back of the machine and the cutting edge is more towards the front of the machine. Now if you were to to go to cut a hole on a flat surface the cutter would cut the hole more like an ellipse but don’t do this as it would mess up your tool bc the shank would hit the edge of the ellipse anyway what you are after is the radius of the long side of the ellipse. If you could make a setup where the blade is at an angle and the tool is straight then you could get a much larger radius to that dip without needing a large radius tool which would make the blade look so much better than having a square divot and also with the right tuning you could have it come to a sharp point on the blade edge effectively making a rake angle on it. Sry if this has been a long rant and makes no sense
Have you considered using a bull nosed end mill on the bevels? same process you came up with using the 3/16" endmill, but it doesn't have sharp corners to make lines you cant tumble out. it can also be used to form the plunge line. (this is the method I see Aaron Gough using on his knife making setup)
All my endmills have at least a .010" radius. I did try the 8 fl Gough .060" end mill I've used in previous videos with this set up. Might be too many flutes for soft milling and at 1/4" I still think it pulls up too much. I might try another bull nose later though.
Absolutely love when the videos come out seeing the process is amazing :):) I do wonder and hope if you would offer International Shipping when you do release
I guess the material will change in temperature with each pass, which means it will expand and contract - and lengthen and shorten. Maybe this change in temperature is contributing to the depth of pass variation you're seeing. If the blade is changing in length over the duration of the work, this could cause slight bowing of the material against the fixtures.
2 ways to grind a "curve" 1. tilt a flat grinding disc ever so slightly and use the edge to grind the curve. 2. use an air grinding belt running over a backing with the shape of your curvature. Option 1 is quick and dirty, while option 2 is the proper way. Option 1 is used in telescope lapping though so it is accurate enough for your use case.
