snap ring grove question.

jumpinjimmy447 · Aug 29, 2019

I have been a maintenance machinist for almost 30 years , I make a lot of simple parts and shafts ect . I also repair a lot of parts by welding up and turning ect .
I had a block yesterday about 6 inch x 4 inch with 2 bored bearings in it held in with snap rings , and was thinking how I would re cut them if needed .
it would be a pain to have to dial them in on a 4 jaw or possibly set them up on a rotary table with a thin type woodruff type cutter .

So my question is their a special tool or way to cut these on a mill with a boring head?

also I only have manual Bridgeport mill and a lathe.

Larry Dickman · Aug 29, 2019

never used one myself, but I believe that's what these are for,
Grooving Head - Products

Mike1974 · Aug 29, 2019

Larry Dickman said:
never used one myself, but I believe that's what these are for,
Grooving Head - Products

That's pretty cool, but probably also serious coin. I doubt it is a reasonable solution for 'maintenance' type things. I would just say the OP is going to have to do it how he originally thought, 4 jaw or rotary table.

Ray Behner · Aug 29, 2019

You could use a boring and facing head.
https://www.ebay.com/b/boring-facing-head/bn_7024876531

donie · Aug 29, 2019

Odd shaped parts like castings for power transfer cases can be done in a mill with a Wohlhaupter type head often much easier then using a lathe. Cutting snapring,oring grooves, and facing, one can make almost invisible repairs to damaged welded up castings.

redlee · Aug 29, 2019

Fairly easy to dial in on a lathe, use a COAX dial.
Good practice.

ratbldr427 · Aug 29, 2019

I have several Narex B & Facing heads I could cut them with.However a lot of hard to hold parts I can always find a drop to make a light press mandrel and do them in one of the lathes.Really quick and not necessary to have a lot of speed.

I also have a lot of internal & external grooving tools for the various widths.The cheap $7-20 Chinese internal/external bars(that use dog bone inserts) work really well.

gbent · Aug 30, 2019

You can cut snap ring grooves with a standard boring head. Set up the proper cutter and feed the boring head out until the cutter touches the bore. Feed the boring head out a thou or two, and rotate the boring head by hand. Rinse and repeat until the proper depth is reached. Use spindle power for the final depth. Most snap ring grooves are so shallow this method may be faster than changing tools to a facing head.

mc3608 · Aug 30, 2019

gbent said:
You can cut snap ring grooves with a standard boring head. Set up the proper cutter and feed the boring head out until the cutter touches the bore. Feed the boring head out a thou or two, and rotate the boring head by hand. Rinse and repeat until the proper depth is reached. Use spindle power for the final depth. Most snap ring grooves are so shallow this method may be faster than changing tools to a facing head.

I've done it the same way many times.
No need for a fancy Boring/facing Head

HuFlungDung · Aug 30, 2019

gbent said:
You can cut snap ring grooves with a standard boring head. Set up the proper cutter and feed the boring head out until the cutter touches the bore. Feed the boring head out a thou or two, and rotate the boring head by hand. Rinse and repeat until the proper depth is reached. Use spindle power for the final depth. Most snap ring grooves are so shallow this method may be faster than changing tools to a facing head.

And whatever you do, don't touch off the bore and then move equal amounts in all 4 quadrant directions, and then do the same at the 45 degree offset positions. Never do that for rough counterbores for screw heads, either.

LKeithR · Aug 30, 2019

gbent said:
You can cut snap ring grooves with a standard boring head. Set up the proper cutter and feed the boring head out until the cutter touches the bore. Feed the boring head out a thou or two, and rotate the boring head by hand. Rinse and repeat until the proper depth is reached. Use spindle power for the final depth. Most snap ring grooves are so shallow this method may be faster than changing tools to a facing head.

Another trick I learned when doing it this way is to use a boring bar with some extra length, This gives it a
little "spring" so you can make your cuts in steps of .005" or so. If you've got a bunch to do it gets a bit tedious
but for "onesie-twosies" it works fine. I've never tried turning the head by hand, always just powered up the
spindle for each pass,

HuFlungDung said:
And whatever you do, don't touch off the bore and then move equal amounts in all 4 quadrant directions, and then do the same at the 45 degree offset positions. Never do that for rough counterbores for screw heads, either.

I'm trying to wrap my head around what you're saying and I'm coming up blank. I know you're a competent
machinist so it must be my comprehension skills this morning. Care to clarify?

jumpinjimmy447 · Aug 30, 2019

Thanks to everyone for their input , my plan was to check the thread a few times yesterday but every machine in the factory decided to turn to shit .
the idea of slowly feeding the boring head out a few thou at a time will work, I rarely need to cut a grove on a odd part but was just thinking man theirs got to bean easier way. thanks guys.

plastikdreams · Aug 30, 2019

jumpinjimmy447 said:
Thanks to everyone for their input , my plan was to check the thread a few times yesterday but every machine in the factory decided to turn to shit .
the idea of slowly feeding the boring head out a few thou at a time will work, I rarely need to cut a grove on a odd part but was just thinking man theirs got to bean easier way. thanks guys.

There is a MUCH easier way...let someone else do it

HuFlungDung · Aug 30, 2019

LKeithR said:
Another trick I learned when doing it this way is to use a boring bar with some extra length, This gives it a
little "spring" so you can make your cuts in steps of .005" or so. If you've got a bunch to do it gets a bit tedious
but for "onesie-twosies" it works fine. I've never tried turning the head by hand, always just powered up the
spindle for each pass,

I'm trying to wrap my head around what you're saying and I'm coming up blank. I know you're a competent
machinist so it must be my comprehension skills this morning. Care to clarify?

It is basically 8 points of interpolation. With a cutter radius close to the bore size, the lobes at the bottom of the groove are minimal. You could do 16 points if you wanted to, but you'd discover that there's nothing much to cut.

Using a 2 axis DRO, it's easy to calculate the 45 degree positions by .7071 * offset along the quadrant lines.

machinistrrt · Aug 30, 2019

I'm for using the lathe: use strap clamps on a faceplate and a conventional groove tool. It's quicker than a rotary table on the mill, 'specially if you have a small faceplate you can grab in the three jaw chuck (Even if you have to change out the chuck for the faceplate, it's still faster).

CalG · Aug 30, 2019

I can't imagine not using the lathe.

Unless the lathe you have is too small.

Larry Dickman · Aug 31, 2019

CalG said:
I can't imagine not using the lathe.

Unless the lathe you have is too small.

I have a customer who send me some arms to put the ring grooves in. They're a conventional shop with no CNC. Why don't they just chuck it up on a lathe? Maybe because it's 4 feet long.

Mike Henry · Aug 31, 2019

Waldes Truarc used to make an internal grooving tool that used custom HSS cutters. I have what looks like a salesman's sample with part of the body cut away to show the internals. Interesting gadget.

Waldes-truarc-grooving-tool-long-island-city-ad-1953-ny-displaypic.jpg

snap ring grove question.

Aluminum

Titanium

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Titanium

Titanium

Diamond

Aluminum

Diamond

Stainless

Aluminum

Diamond

Diamond

Stainless

Diamond

Titanium

Titanium

Similar threads