Wanted: 1" Walnut dowel

[Perry]

I'm looking for 5 pieces, approximately 5" long of 1" dia. walnut dowel. I'm using it for handles on a couple watchmaker gravers. Tried the usual locations around town. The walnut is hard to find.

I'm located in Calgary and hoping to find something local.

Thankyou. Perry

 

[trlvn]

Just curious why you want walnut specifically?

Lee Valley sells lengths of hardwood dowel but only in maple, oak or cherry:

https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/supplies/joinery/dowel-rods/32721-dowel-rods

[And the prices are not cheap!]

An old broom handle (likely maple or beech) could be re-purposed.

Craig

 

[historicalarms]

For Walnut Dowel you may have to buy a small piece of plank, cut it in chunks and then turn them round yourself. When I lived in cowtown I would look at the Windsor Ply store in COP area or there was a "specialty hardwood store" just south (same service road, 3rd building south) of the indoor shooting range off Blackfoot.

Old -time gunsmiths that made new stocks that were in the area would have been a likely source for small chunks of "cut-off;s" but I don't think there are any of those left in the cowtown area...most everything used now is resin bonded fiberglass.

 

[Tom Fitzpatrick]

Go to Black Forrest Wood on Blackfoot - they have tons of hardwood plus numerous blanks for turning pens and other multitude projects. 403 255 6044 -

 

[YYCHM]

KMS had a whole wall of exotic wood pieces the last time I was there. I don't recollect anything dowel shaped. That was about two years ago if not more.

 

[Johnwa]

Perry
Are you in a rush?
I don’t have rounds but have a lot of suitable size pieces.
I’ll be back in Calgary after xmas.
A couple of Timmys donuts or equivalent would be adequate.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Perry]

@ trlvn
Walnut? Just for the looks. There will be a brass ring on the tool side to prevent splitting and I think the dark walnut and the brass make a nice match.
I figured if I was going to go thru the process I might as well make something I like.

https://watchmaking.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/7/9/1179986/5475097_orig.jpg

Broom handle is a great idea. I actually thought about old furniture/bed legs and believe it or not there is someone on Kijiji in Calgary selling legs....lol....all types.

@historicalarms, Tom Fitzpatrick
Tried the usual suspects. Windsor, Blackforest. Timbertown, etc..... I also though about turning it on my metal lathe. My lathe is in the basement. I would have to set up my shop vac to hopefully reduce the mess. A little wood turning might be ok, but a bigger project could get too dusty.

@YYCHobbyMachinist Never tried KMS. Will check them tomorrow. Thankyou.

@Johnwa
No rush. I've got other projects to keep me in trouble. I'm working on another project and realized I need to upgrade my gravers. Starting to gather all the pieces now.
I'll hold off until after Christmas. I need to order some tooling blanks from MSC in the U.S. and that will take a bit. (working around their crazy shipping costs)

Thank you for all the responses. Tried to reply last evening, but I think the site went down.

 

[Dabbler]

I turn wood all the time on my little metal lathe. works fine. You need to clean up the dust/chips promptly or they soak up all the way oil, etc...

 

[trlvn]

Or buy a wood lathe. Come on, you know you want another machine! Maybe a nice Canadian-made Oneway:

https://oneway.ca/products-category/lathes



Craig

 

[Bofobo]

I’m in Calgary and have a wood lathe you can use

 

[Perry]

Bofobo, thank you for the offer.

I'm waiting for Johnwa to return to Calgary. If the pieces are smaller I most likely turn them down on my metal lathe.

Happy Holidays, Perry

 

[Johnwa]

Just a few more weeks although looking at the weather in Calgary I’m not too excited about returning!
i think I have pieces that are 1.25” to 1.5” thick. I can trim them on the tables saw to whatever rough dimensions you want.

 

[Perry]

Just a big shout out to Johnwa. THANK YOU for the walnut.



I only used a 7" piece. Cut it into 4 pieces to make 1/2" dowels. (used my finest saw and took my time, wasn't much room for error) Each dowel was cut in half which gave me 8 graver handles.

I figured the less I had to turn off, the less mess I would make. Surprisingly a small project like this takes more time then you think. I'm still trying to figure out how to get around MSC Direct crazy shipping charges for a few 1/8"cobalt tool blanks. I've got some 1/8 HSS blanks and a few extra handles. So I'll make a couple HSS gravers for now.

I ended up doing this all on my mini lathe. Half way thru I realized if I had done it on the ATLAS lathe I could have used the lantern tool post like a ball cutter to round the ends. Found a post online that referenced using a router bit in the tool post. So I took a test cut before I was too far along and it worked. So in the end this is how I finished the ends.



Again, thank you.

Perry

 

[PeterT]

Nice job. MSC's prices are insane, never mind shipping. Avoid them like the plague. You can get HSS blanks at KBC & its flat 8.95 to your door. Same for Travers but I think they are playing games now with minimum $ order amount. If you have a bit of time for shipping, you can get decent cutting steel blanks through Chinese sellers (Ebay/Aliexpress) for much cheaper yet. Even solid carbide blanks in all shapes & sizes.

 

[Perry]

Nice job. MSC's prices are insane, never mind shipping. Avoid them like the plague. You can get HSS blanks at KBC & its flat 8.95 to your door. Same for Travers but I think they are playing games now with minimum $ order amount. If you have a bit of time for shipping, you can get decent cutting steel blanks through Chinese sellers (Ebay/Aliexpress) for much cheaper yet. Even solid carbide blanks in all shapes & sizes.

I'm trying top find 1/8" colbat tool bit blanks. M33 and M46 Cobalt. That is the problem. The only place that I can source is MSC.

Anyone else have any ideas?

MSC stocks the Mo-Max brand made by theCleveland Twist Drill Co. . Part numbers 71094080 and 71095087. $11.63 US and $14.00 US each.

 

[PeterT]

example KBC 1/8" square section but all 2.5" length. The long series (4") starts with 1/4"

M-2
https://www.kbctools.ca/itemdetail/1-420-008

5% cobalt
https://www.kbctools.ca/products/search/1-421-008

10 % cobalt
https://www.kbctools.ca/products/search/?Keyword=1-422-008

Dynavan T15
https://www.kbctools.ca/products/search/1-408-00572

 

[Perry]

PeterT, Thankyou. 2.5" inches is great, these gravers are small. The brand states KBC. I'm guessing China supplier.

Never played with the T15, but I'm curious because of the $25 price on it.

I'm off to place an order now.

 

[PeterT]

I'd like to see the business end of how you retain the cutting blank in the brass end

 

[Perry]

Basically you drill a 1/8" hole. Hammer the handle on. the brass is to prevent the wood from splitting.

Link I posted above.
https://watchmaking.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/7/9/1179986/5475097_orig.jpg

I'm following the plans from here (Better photos about 1/2 way down the page)
https://watchmaking.weebly.com/toolmaking.html
and here
http://www.nawcc-index.net/Articles/Smith-gravers.pdf

 

[PeterT]

Hard to know if T15 is worth it unless you try. Its hardness & edge holding capability might be the +/- same in your application. I've often wondered about this. A lot of great knives & woodworking blades are made from high carbon quenched & tempered tool steel (mainly so they can get the right form factor). But I wonder how they stack up to plain HSS tool bits which does an amazing job cutting metal. I thought I read an article where a guy made a specialized scraper chisel out of a HSS parting blade & he went way longer between sharpen/honing over his regular chisels. Interesting stuff.

Dynavan (T15) is a super high speed steel designed particularly for extra wear resistance and for resistance to softening at high operating temperatures. The application
of this grade should be confined to heavy duty applications and to those tools where its grinding properties will not be a serious disadvantage.