Practical Mechanics for Boys by James Slough Zerbe

CHAPTER II

HOW TO GRIND AND SHARPEN TOOLS It is singular, that with the immense variety of tools set forth in the preceding chapter, how few, really, require the art of the workman to grind and sharpen. If we take the lathe, the drilling machine, as well as the shaper, planer, milling machine, and all power-driven tools, they are merely mechanism contrived to handle some small, and, apparently, inconsequential tool, which does the work on the material. IMPORTANCE OF THE CUTTING TOOL.--But it is this very fact that makes the preparation of that part of the mechanism so important. Here we have a lathe, weighing a thousand pounds, worth hundreds of dollars, concentrating its entire energies on a little bit, weighing eight ounces, and worth less than a dollar. It may thus readily be seen that it is the little bar of metal from which the small tool is made that needs our care and attention. This is particularly true of the expensive milling machines, where the little saw, if not in perfect order, and not properly set, will not only do improper work, but injure the machine itself. More lathes are ruined from using badly ground tools than from any other cause. In the whole line of tools which the machinist must take care of daily, there is nothing as important as the lathe cutting-tool, and the knowledge which goes with it to use the proper one. Let us simplify the inquiry by considering them under the following headings: