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My new Monoset

eKretz

Diamond; Mod Squad
Joined
Mar 27, 2005
Location
Northwest Indiana, USA
Been looking for a tool grinder for a little while, ran across this one on a sale site. Worked out a deal and just brought it home. This machine used to sharpen cutters at the Beverly Shear Co. Came with a nice selection of goodies stashed in the bottom. 7 wheel arbors, a stack of assorted wheels, bunch of finger rests and micrometer stops, motor drive for the workhead, assortment of indexing plates and collets, etc. I figure it will be good for the one-sie two-sie cutters I need to sharpen, no plans for production or high volume sharpening. More interested in being self-sufficient as far as sharpening goes. Spindle and workhead bearings seem to be in good shape, feel snug and smooth.

The new owner of the Beverly Shear building had more machines as well if anyone is interested. A couple old shapers, a Milwaukee #3 vertical, and some other little bitty horizontal that had a vertical head and a shaping head if'n I remember correctly. He is just looking to get them out of there. He's on the south side of Chicago.

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Been looking for a tool grinder for a little while, ran across this one on a sale site. Worked out a deal and just brought it home. This machine used to sharpen cutters at the Beverly Shear Co. Came with a nice selection of goodies stashed in the bottom. 7 wheel arbors, a stack of assorted wheels, bunch of finger rests and micrometer stops, motor drive for the workhead, assortment of indexing plates and collets, etc. I figure it will be good for the one-sie two-sie cutters I need to sharpen, no plans for production or high volume sharpening. More interested in being self-sufficient as far as sharpening goes. Spindle and workhead bearings seem to be in good shape, feel snug and smooth.

The new owner of the Beverly Shear building had more machines as well if anyone is interested. A couple old shapers, a Milwaukee #3 vertical, and some other little bitty horizontal that had a vertical head and a shaping head if'n I remember correctly. He is just looking to get them out of there. He's on the south side of Chicago.

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Good score, Monosets can do about anything. I have used mine a lot but every time I use it I learn something. Is the Beverly Shear company out of business?
 
Good score, Monosets can do about anything. I have used mine a lot but every time I use it I learn something. Is the Beverly Shear company out of business?

From what I understand, the Beverly Shear company was bought by another company called Mittler. Mittler will be producing the Beverly equipment now, still in the U.S. as well. Mittler came and got all the jigs, fixtures, spares and such but left all the heavy outdated stuff behind. The Monoset was being used to sharpen cutters for the #3 Milwaukee, and boy were they archaic! They had face mills that used ½" shank cemented carbide brazed tooling. So they clamped the tool shanks in the cutter then ground them into concentricity with the Monoset. Can't believe they didn't pick up a modern face mill.

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If you don't mind I might have a few questions for you about setup and use of the Monoset. I've used tool and cutter grinders, but this is my first time with a Monoset. I did get a manual so hopefully that will cover most stuff.
 
Anybody know of a source for downloadable parts or service manuals for a Monoset? I've seen mention of them a few places but the links are all dead. I have an operator's manual but not the other two.
 
Hi eKretz:
You got yourself a Monoset?...You lucky bastard!...I'm envious as Hell!!
I've always wanted one of my very own but I could never justify the cost of a rebuilt one and I didn't want another machine project after rebuilding the Monarch 10EE (2 years and a good 500 hours of unproductive time).

Aren't you the one who just recently made a great score on a Micromaster too?
The Grinding Gods must be smiling on you!

That full set of Monoset collets is apparently a second gift from Heaven...they are supposed to be rare as hen's teeth and worth a good chunk of change on their own.

With regard to your question, sadly I can't help you at all, but at least it's a totally straightforward mechanical machine with zero fancy electrical bits.
If you take all the bolts out, turn it upside down and shake it, you'll see how it comes apart:D.
Putting it back together is basically the opposite process.

Once you've removed the Godawful yellow paint and fixed it up, it'll be one sweet addition to your capability, especially if you do a lot of prototyping and hate spending time and money with the Harvey catalogue like I do.
It's sooo nice to be able to spin up your own custom made perfectly engineered micro boring bar, and just make a new one if you break the first one 5 minutes into the job.

I remain forever envious!

Cheers

Marcus
Implant Mechanix • Design & Innovation > HOME
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining
 
I have a Monoset sales brochure in PDF( I don't have the original..sorry about that ) , that shows setups and accessories. I can send it to you if you want.
 
I made a gauge that located the swing pivot so I could scale, or set in jo blocks to gauge my radius so being much like a surface grinder radius fixture.
Likely you will find that in the manual but our Monoset did not have one.
Monosets are great for one-ups and few ups.
To be able to pick up a spiral/helix is a great feature.
 
Marcus, yep, got lucky on the MicroMaster too. With my back issues I kind of HAVE to have a knack for finding good deals, mostly by spending a lot of time looking for them and friends who send me links too. Funny thing was, until I ran across this machine I had never heard of a Monoset! I had used Cinci #2s and other similar grinders but not even seen one of these. Once I saw it I was impressed, then found that they were pretty well regarded for the most part and snatched it up. :)

Regarding the yellow paint, yeah I'd like to skin the bastard who did that. He also painted inside the dovetails! Grr. Suffice to say that I will be stripping the machine apart and scraping paint out of places it doesn't belong, cleaning everything and doing any fixes that are necessary. On the plus side, everything seems to be functional.

Daryl, Is that the brochure that is on Vintage Machinery's site? The one with this guy on the cover?

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If so, got it. If yours is different I sure would like a copy.

Buck, I will probably have to do the same. Out of that nice stash of included accessories, it seems the only thing I didn't get was the adjustable swivel stops.

My machine seems to have a slightly different configuration than what is shown in the manuals I found, it has an extra dovetail slide on the bottom that has no screw, you just have to rough position it by hand then lock it down. I guess for coarse positioning? Maybe my machine is a very old one.
 
Hmm. Was there a Monoset without a workhead spindle clamp? I can't seem to find one on the workhead. And mine has this little index offsetting adjustment on the back that's got considerably more slop in it than I'm comfortable with. Going to have to either eliminate or totally rework that. With both index pins driven home there's still a good .040"ish of backlash because of the slop in that thing. They couldn't have just run with no clamp on the old ones, right? WTH?

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Here is the serial number if anyone knows how to date from that. M314000-12. I can't find anything that looks remotely like that except for a site talking about specials.

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I may check with him on a few.

On another note, I'm starting to think this machine may well have been a special. None of the other Monosets I have seen pictures of via Google seem to have this double dovetail setup like mine. Any of you guys seen one like this?

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Wow!
No, -WOW!

You didn't say what it cost, but i bet there are many that eventually paid a lot more just for the collets and extras.

Used one a few times a couple decades ago, working in a friend's tool and grind shop. Before i started to have an inkling what i was actually doing. They are probably even more useful for making tools, than for straight up sharpening tasks, which can often be done with fixtures on a surface grinder or Cincy #2 type faster. But when the shapes get complex, ball noses, or you need to generate the leads from the machine, i'd love to have access to a monoset again & learn/get better at that kind of stuff. Monosets can be easier to get in around small tools, too.

Have fun.

smt
 
Yep, got it for less than what I've seen reported for a set of the Monoset collets. I got the spindle running last night, sounds great, very quiet. Got a little warm but not uncomfortable to my hand, maybe 110° F or so. The offset adjuster for the indexing is pretty neat, got a little gear attached to the knurled knob that runs on a sort of circular rack. It definitely needs bushed to tighten it up though. Think I'll keep it on there.

I yanked the sine bar that does the helical generation off, it was as dry as a bone. Gonna clean it up good, seal the housing and relubricate.The follower in there is sort of like an adjustable parallel so you can adjust it for wear to eliminate backlash in the system, really neat. There are several places to adjust and remove backlash. Another is the gear rack, it can be adjusted for center distance via an eccentric follower.

I am trying to get things rolling to grind a tool for a buddy, it's for making a 12mm ball groove that transitions into a 30° bevel. For cutting either oil or grease grooves, per spec on a print.
 
Starting on that grooving tool, was wondering what would be the expected use in terms of wheel burned up and what approach is best for such a tool. Got any pointers for me on this one Buck? I was thinking spin grind the radius and bevels, then gash, then drop the wheel to grind primary and secondary. Maybe 46-60 J for roughing and 80 for finish and picking out the corner by the transition?

I'm scratching my head a little on how would be the best way to do the gashing... The ball end mills I've looked at have the gash smoothly blended into the flute on a curve so that you can use a finger rest when doing the primary grind. It's not critical in this application but I'd still like to understand how to do it if necessary. Was thinking maybe I'd try to do it with the helix generator with the workhead aimed up?

Got started on roughing out the ball and 30° bevels, this is where I quit for the moment. Dimensions are as shown on the sketch. Ignore the red, that's inconsequential. The ball end is .24" R

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Good morning eKretz:
I think that helical gashing is going to be a cast iron bitch even on a Monoset.
I say so because you need to rotate the cutter on its long axis at the same time as you tip it up, if you want the side of the wheel to form the cutting face of the flute.

So you may need to use the periphery of the wheel to form the cutting face of the flute instead.
That way you can rotate the workhead instead of having to tip it up ...you just need to find the proper center of rotation to get the end flute to fade out at the tip of the cutter.

Once you've established that, you can spin the cutter axially in small increments along the helical path so you approximate the helix with small flats.
I don't think you can use the helix generating sine bar because you're not moving the cutter axially when you gash the flute; you're rotating the workhead instead and if I understand correctly the sine bar requires motion along the cutter axis to make the cutter turn.
Similarly, I don't think you can use a finger in a flute, for the same reason.

So I think you'd have to grind a flat, rotate the cutter along it's axis a bit, swing a bit of the radius, grind another flat, etc etc, until you're blending into the helix of the rest of the cutter.

Remember though; I've never actually spent quality time with one...I may be full of it, and there may well be a cam somewhere in the machine that allows you to rotate the workhead and make the cutter spin along the helix at the same time.
After all...it is a necessary part of sharpening the radius portion of any ball cutter, not just for making the flutes, so Monoset being one of the premier cutter grinders you'd think...

Cheers

Marcus
Implant Mechanix • Design & Innovation > HOME
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining
 
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Adding a couple pictures of the sort of helical gashing I mentioned earlier for Buck to reference since they can't be added to PMs.

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You deserve an attaboy..Very nice looking work
(That little bit of chatter is easy to fix..as you know.)
Plus add a small bridge land at the center.
Having an abrasive wheel dresser tickle dress the wheel Od and face, for better balance and smooth running.
(Try to find a crackerjack mini)
 








 
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