Spinner questions

[garyflorida]

I see the T Bar system with double socket system. I see single socket rods for drill press. What is the advantage of the cup holder double socket system? Does the socket need to be exactly in the center of the rod stock?

[orvet]

I couldn't imagine it working otherwise.
All off mine are centred. If it was off center it would probably spin an oval head, of it worked at all.

[garyflorida]

Here is what I got Dale. I remember looking at these wondering if this was going to work when I received them. I spun them in a drill chuck and the cups seem to be on center but the shoulders are out of whack, something is not right.
Is the pedestal thing just to support your work underneath while you are spinning top pin?
Gees, every step in tooling up for this knife thing is a project.
At least I got my stiddy built so this I will conquer....I hope.
What does your spinner system look like Dale if you don't mind?
Thanks,
Gary

[Jeffinn]

Hi Gary,
I have that same spinner set and I think mine have the same issue. I’m away from home for the next week or so but I’ll take a look when I return. I personally have not had much luck with this spinner set but others seem to do well with it. I’ll be watching this thread to see what everyone else thinks.

[garyflorida]

I am trying to contact the supplier to see what they say.
Mean while I will take these creations to my machinist and see if he can make them "true" or start from scratch?

[ea42]

Gary, Do you have an old junker knife with spun pins you can try it out on? Put the base piece on you drill press table, then mount the spinner in the chuck. Lower the spinner towards the base and slide the base under it until they're centered and come together evenly when lowered. Turn on the drill press. Take your junker knife and rest the spun center pin on the base, then lower the spinner slowly onto the pin from the top. Once they meet give it some decent pressure and see what happens. There shouldn't be any drastic wobble. Sometimes you'll catch the pin a bit odd and everything will shudder all over the place, but that's operator error. Been there done that lol. I've got a bit of a different set up but it's the same principle. You may have to clamp the base down but try it without a clamp first.

Eric

[garyflorida]

Thanks Eric. THe builder contacted me, nice as a person could be btw. Two of the 4 that go into drill press need to be true. He said there was a chance of error made in product sent out due to something I forget. So I am going to try and fix myself. I don't know what it is about Texas. All the people there are fantastic...all of them are as polite and cordial as can be so I salute every last one of you.

[muskrat man]

the pedestal and bottom "punch" is necessary to support the backside of a duble ended pin like a rocker pin, especially if its in a rough texture material like stag where the head might be down in a groove

[orvet]

Eric’s directions are spot on as are Kaleb!

I am pressed for time today but I will post a few pictures and to come back to this in a couple of days. I would be happy to do a video, but I have no video editing software and am pretty unfamiliar with the whole video process. If someone could help me I would be happy to do a video on pins spinning, I just don't know what to do with it once I've made it.
I have some different styles of spinners that came from Camillus. I would love to find someone who could copy the design in the carbide because I know it works!

Here is my primary spinner rest. It probably weighs 4 or 5 pounds, it is a weight off of an old feed store scales. I threaded a setscrew down into the center hole and then held it tightly in place with the washer and a jam nut. The weight means I don’t have to worry about it moving around on me when I’m trying to spin a pin.

I have another spinner rest which is a piece of micarta that I put in a drill press vise to hold it steady. Glued into the micarta are four sizes of brass rod with a little dimple in the top to hold the backside of the pin. This is especially helpful when working on stag or heavily jigged bone.

Here is the set up for spinning a pin on the handle of this Western. I am working on the short pin at the front edge of the handle, not the long pins in the back!

Here are pictures of 3 different spinners A, B & C. Notice that they all have cutting surfaces rather than just mushrooming the metal into a dome.
When I use these carbide spinners I use them in my drill press with it set on the lowest speed. It does not take long generally to spin a head on the pin. 5 or 10 seconds is ample time with 1/16” brass pins stock. I do use lubrication when I am spinning the pins as it helps to keep the metal from galling. Spinner B is 1/8" in diameter. Spinners A and C are 1/4" in diameter.

Spinner A

Spinner B

Spinners C

I hope this helps.

[muskrat man]

Dale, if you make the video and can transfer it to me through email (hard with file size limits etc) I can upload it, or I can take some time in a day or two and make one and upload it, shouldn't take long.

You can upload raw video clips to youtube, no editing software needed. Just won't have all that glitzy glam of a professional videographer production (which I in no way am or claim to be). I normally just use editing to splice short clips together into one movie, that's about as technical as I can get with it, one of the reasons I haven't gone hog wild and pig crazy making YT videos.

[orvet]

Thanks Kaleb, I didn’t realize it was that easy to upload to YT.
I download lots of stuff but I’ve never uploaded anything so it’s probably not too difficult. Hopefully I can figure it out and upload a video on pen spinning.

[garyflorida]

Good job Dale. Very interesting. I have ordered A few spinners hoping something works. Here is the closest system compare to your little gem I have found so far.

[garyflorida]

Trying to avoid this.

[orvet]

Gary, I would say you used too muchit's's speed on the drill press, and you probably press down way too hard.
It does not take care a high speed drill press, (I use mine on the slowest speed I can get it), and it doesn't take a lot of pressure.
The head seems to be formed primarily by the cutting action of the spinner. It doesn't take a lot of pressure or a lot of speed to form a pin correctly.


I get that kind of result when I get frustrated and use a lot of pressure when I am spinning a pin. Spinning a pin is more finesse than brute force. To use a baseball analogy, it is a perfect bunt laid down between the pitcher and the third baseman as opposed to a third deck homerun!