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(Text on screen): How to Use a Pencil Grinder for Grinding Metal, Kevin Caron, www.kevincaron.com
The Voice: You gonna rob a bank?
Kevin Caron: Boo!
Oh, sorry. Wrong season.
Um, no.
This is; this is a heck of a little conglomeration of parts over here.
This is my little sanding box that I made.
And you'll see this big hose on it. It runs over to a big dust collector system.
Well, I cheated a little. This is actually for wood.
But because I'm just using soft aluminum and the chips are really, really small, I'm not hurting it any.
You know, it works just fine.
And what I did was I just made this box and ducted to it. So now I have a platform to work on that has a positive downdraft.
So, anytime I'm sitting here working and grinding and shaping and playing, all the chips (well, most of the chips) go down.
A few of the chips get stuck on the edges. You can brush those in and clean them up later on.
But without using this dust collector, oh my God; it's a snowstorm in here the way all the chips go around.
So, it definitely helps a lot.
This is a little sculpture I've been working on. This is kind of my master's thesis for using a mill.
You know, so, I've taught myself how to work the mill on this piece right here.
It started out as just a big block of aluminum, and I've carved all of this away just with the mill.
So now I'm kind of getting into the detail portion of it. So, now I've got a little baby mill.
This is actually called a pencil grinder, because, well, you kind of hold it like a pencil.
You use it like a pencil. It looks like a big, fat pencil.
But it's air-powered and it runs little eighth-inch bits. You know: either burrs or end mills or whatever you can find.
This is a little aluminum end mill, so it's a lot faster than a burr.
It's a lot safer than trying to use this little tiny burr, or little tiny bit, in the mill, because this you've got a lot of control over.
If you put this into the big mill and put this on the mill and try to just crank the table around and work it that way,
I don't know about you, but I haven't had good luck with it. I break these things all the time.
So, I'll use it this way.
So, let me put my stuff on and I'll show you how it works.
The Voice: What's your stuff? The safety equipment?
Kevin Caron: Oh, safety stuff. Yeah. Glasses. Dust mask. Aluminum dust. It's a lot finer. It can get airborne.
You can get just a little cloud going here. It's not good for your lungs, guys.
Dust mask, respirator, something; anything. Holding your breath: That's not an option.
But let me get this on.
You might want to turn your volume down just a little.
(using pencil grinder)
Kevin Caron: Sounds about like the dentist, doesn't it?
The Voice: So, where do you get a pencil grinder from, Kev?
Kevin Caron: Well, I bought this one over at Grainger. It's a Speedaire. You can go online and just search for them that way.
And there are several different varieties out there. There are different makes and models.
Look for one that has a fairly high RPM. You know, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000.
You really want to be able to spin some of these little tiny bits to get a nice, smooth cut out it.
And one of the cool things about this is it's got an exhaust tube where you have your incoming air.
It goes right up inside this hollow tube. It goes into the pencil grinder and then exhausts right back out to this outer sleeve.
So, the exhaust is actually way back here.
So, when you're using this thing, the exhaust is down here, not in your face. It's not in your ear.
You know, you're not getting the oil or water or whatever happens to come out of there. You're not going to get that on you.
It's going to stay down here out of the way.
Nice little feature. I like it.
Hey, you wanna see some bits? Come on. I'll show you something else.
Here are some of the different bits that I've got. These are all the eighth-inch shafts for the pencil grinder.
These are quarter-inch shafts for one of the bigger grinders.
And I just wanted to show you the difference between just some of these;
some of these bits, the way they're shaped, and why some of them are for aluminum and some of them are for steel.
And you see how big the teeth are on this one?
The Voice: Yeah.
Kevin Caron: Big, deep, very few teeth. Lots of grab. This is for aluminum.
See how fine these are? This is a cross-cut for harder metals. You know: steels or stainless or, you know, something like that.
Where this works great in aluminum, it won't work on hard metals.
This works on hard metals but will clog up in just a few seconds if you put it to soft metals like aluminum or copper.
And this is kind of in between the two.
The teeth are a little more shallow, so it's a little less aggressive than this big guy is, but it won't clog up quite as fast as this.
And then this little tiny guy is just a smaller version of this one. Nice, deep teeth on it.
But he works in the pencil grinder, so that little detail work again.
So, lots of different bits. Lots of different burrs and mills.
You know, different sizes, different shapes they use for different materials.
You know what tool you have. You know what you're working on. Do your research.
Get online. You know, call your welding store.
Figure out which one you need for what job you're trying to do. Get the right one. Makes the job a lot easier.
Speaking of jobs, I've got to go back to mine. See you next time.
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