A "Very Much Improved"

Quorn Tool and Cutter Grinder

PART 1
hr Wcslter B. Mueller
and drawings Iw Auihor

A pparently, the Quorn Tool and Cutter Grinder was

born in controversy, in 1974, with inventor
Professor D. H. Chaddock being almost immediately
attacked by a vociferous detractor, Mr. Thomas, who
took exception to nearly every idea (If the protessor.
What prompted the brouhaha may never be known or
be important), hut even to this day, it seems
unfortunate and unnecessary. In a fraternity built on
amicable interrelationship, animosity surely has no
place.
Anyway, I hope the issue is dead, as the 1974 Quorn
design is no longer the best thing around to argue about.
I make this statement with some amount of confidence,
as I intend to show that there is a legitimate
improvement possible on the 1974 Quorn design that
renders much of the Chaddock/Thomas debate passe.
This is the "VMI Quorn," the design named in the title
of this paper, and I think even the most hard-to-
convince old-timer will agree that newer may he better, I -i front i-jew of the VU! Quorn too! and cutter grinder.
at least sometimes. - were easy enough to grind, but OD grinding was
Maybe the Mark 2 Quorn was protected by patents, hut decidedly "iffy." Proper setup of the lip support finger
I am surprised that nobody picked up the hail after was difficult to get right, and then came the problem of
Chaddock left the field. The Quorn was a tidy little getting the lip to he ground on the lip support rest and
machine, hut! don't think anyone who built and used keeping it there while the flute was being drawn across
one should feel disloyal for thinking it might be the grinding wheel. There's a lot of friction in the world,
improved. When I first built mine, I had the strong need
for a machine that would easily resharpen end mills. For
me, immediate disappointment ensued. The end angles

3 t rear view of the VMI Quorn showing the surface ground

baseplate and the vernier height gage used to make quick machine
2 A rear i-jew of the tM! Quorn tool and cutter grinder. setup adjustments.

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 PARTS LIST
PART NO. on, PART NAME

Base Plate
2 1 Lip-Support Bar
3 1 Lip-Adjust. Screw-Guide
4 1 Top Guide
5 1 Bottom Guide
6 1 Adjusting Knob Assembly
7 1 Height Adjusting Screw
8 1 Slide Clamp Screw
9 1 Lip-Support Guide
10 1 Slide Positioning Screw -
II Lip-Support Lock-Nut
12 Lip-Support Finger
13 I Adjusting Screw Bushing
14 Adjusting-Screw Retainer
15 1
Air-Spindle
16 2 Clamp Collar
17 Air Bearing
18 3 Ball-Handle ________
4 The vernier height gage in use to determine the center line height
of the air spindle. 19 Adjusting-Screw Retainer
20 Brass Gib
and most of mine was located in the fit between the
21 Clamp Screw (purchase)
work spindle and its mating housing diameter.
22 1 Lip-Support Clamp-Plate
Fiddle with the adjustment of the ball handle on the 23 1 Rear Bar Hook
spindle housing as I might, 1 could not achieve a 24 1 L0 Micrometer Head (purchase)
condition of low enough "stick-and-slip" friction to
25 1 Clamp-Plate
keep the flute being ground on the lip support rest. 1.0 Travel Dial Indicator (purchase)
26 1
Immediate disaster was the usual result, leaving me
with a low opinion of Chaddoek's design choice in this 27 1 Indicator Mtg. Bracket

area. If this is what Tlioniits Was incensed about, I think 28 1 Guide-Lip Support Bar
he had a very valid point, it not the right decibel level in
his criticism. I put the machine in a back corner of my
mind and left it there, but I didn't forget it.
If Chaddock could have been reincarnated, I think a
Mark .3 Quorn would have appeared. I also think that
Chaddock, with all of his academic titles, knew about
the mechanical "coetficient of friction." In all
mechanical assemblies with mating stirlaces in
intimate contact, friction is unavoidably present. The
only way to lessen the friction is to interpose a
lubricating fi 1iii of something between the two so riace.
This is usually oil, but oil is a big NO-NO when sliding
surfaces and grinding grit coexist in the same
mechanism. Externally pressurized air.luhricated
bearings are a successful alternate to conventionally
lubricated hearings, hut since high-speed air-lubricated
grinding spindles first appeared in Geriiiany in the 'Os,
Chaddock might not have wanted to consider including
such a thing in his thinking. Hence, he settled for the 5 The vernier height gage in use to determine the center line height
"stick-slip," high.friction condition that his design of the wheel head spindle.
dictated. But you and I can do in 1999 what Chaddock I came to my present state of enlightenment in two
wouldn't/couldn't do in 1974, so if you are willing to steps. I bought my kit of Quorn castings in 1984, 1
unstittcn your lips, and do the tew simple things I will think, and started building the machine per Chaddock's
suggest, we can have a superb little tool grinding instructions, In about five or six nionth, I had a usable
machine that will WORK!, and (don't worry) will still hut unlinished Quorn grinder. The machine was
look British. grinding things but was unfinished in the respect that

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 6 The vernier height gage in ut' to alicIa' a correct height setting fo,
the lip support finger.
all the degree (numerical) markings were left off the
scales, as I didn't think Chaddock's instruction, to take
a hammer and hand stamps and punch the numbers in,
would give me a satisfactory result.
And when I ran into the friction problem, I put the
machine aside and started doing other things.
On December 12, 1988, my son died, and after several
months of misery, I knew 1 had to do something to
preserve my sanity, so 1 started working on another
problem. This was the engraving machine I needed to
finish my Quorn. After about 600 hours of design and
build time, my engraver was finished, so I engraved all
my Quorn dial rings and scales. I should have been
extraordinarily happy how could it he that I wasn't? A
nice new dial engraving, a spiffy paint job and all and I
still couldn't make the Quorn do what I wanted most,
which was sharpen end mill flutes, in spite of the
verbiage and the pictures presented in the "Operating
Instructions" manual that came with the casting set, I
(at least) could not get the easy results Professor
Chaddock predicted. The "coefficient of friction" value
of about 0.15 that Chaddock had accepted had to he
reduced. The best way to do that was by the air spindle
approach, where the coefficient of friction value would
he closer to 0.001" than 0.15, so I went to work.
First, I built the air spindle/spindle housing assembly;
and while I was at it, I added the Blanchard.ground
haseplate, fixed up the lip support finger problem (to a
degree), and added the long travel indicator to help ease
the setup difficulty I felt should he addressed. That was
the (improved) Quorn project published in the May/June
1998 issue of 1-ISM.
My latest version of the Quorn (Very Much Improvedl
machine arrangement I now offer for your
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The dial indicaror snowmg me correct wneel neaa .'wva non set tim
for a 6.00 clearance angle, with a 2.25' diameter grinding wheel.
consideration. This particular little beauty has been
active in my shop for over four years now, and I am
happy to report that my entire opinion of the Quorn and
my sharp end mill inventory have been dramatically
improved.
But, after all of this verbiage, what is a VMI Quorn?
Shown in Photo I is a full frontal view of what I now
think is (Yank-enhanced) British excellence. Maybe
you'll pardon me for privately thinking of this as my
machine, hut I acknowledge it would not exist if it were
not for the solid spade work of Professor Chaddock. If
he had lived to design a Mark 3 Quorn, it might well
have been a First-horn precursor of the VMI Quorn, and
then there could not have been the bitter controversy
between Chaddock and Thomas.
But, on to the changes that make the VMI Quorn a very
good tool grinder to have in your shop. Listed and
described below, hut in no particular order of
importance, are all the "fixes" my Quorn now enjoys.
1 "Blanchard.ground" baseplate; The Blanchard rotary
grinder is used most olten to produce flat surfaces on
large pieces of "hot rolled and unflat" metal plates. A
very obvious addition to the pictured Quorn is a
12 x 18 x 3/8" steel haseplate that is flat to within
may.be 0.002". This additional member provides a
reference surface from which to execute all the
quickly-made machine setup adjustments. The
baseplate appears in Photo 1, with the basic Quorn
machine sitting on top of it. Also appearing, just to
the right of center, is what one might rightly surmise
to he a micrometer spthdle. This member fits into
Mr. Chaddock's item No. 301 casting and, along with
my item 23, replaces his items 308 and 309, which
were his method of controlling the depth of grind
 and, hence, the diameter of the end mill he was
sharpening.
I think my scheme beats his, because the micrometer
gives easier and finer diametral control and my item
23 prevents the top-heavy work spindle assembly
from doing heart-stopping back flops when you least
expect them.
2) The air spindle assembly: As explained at length
earlier, the Mark 2 Quorn grinder suffered from the
large amount of friction in the close fit of the sliding
work spindle/work spindle housing, and that made it
hard to use. The air-lubricated work spindle is free to
move in its housing with virtually no friction and
makes the sharpening of miniature end mills only a
question of operator skill. If any one thing is
revolutionary about the changes I recommend on the
Quorn, it is the externally pressurized air spindle. It
makes the machine a joy to use.
31 The lip rest mechanism: I think Professor Chaddock
would agree that the lip support rest is in the wrong
place, and that it needs to he designed so it can he
adjusted more easily and quickly. In addition, since 8 The VMJ Quorn completely set up and ready to grind lips on a
dull end mill.
the lip support rest is used mainly in the
resharpening of end mills, it should be "married" to
the air spindle and housing assembly. In short, the
entire mechanical structure of the end mill
sharpening device should become a "stand-alone"
kind of machine attachment that can be easily
removed and quickly reattached to the Quorn main
structure, to be used when it is needed. It is this kind
of stand-alone assembly that I have designed and
present to the reader.
4 Long-travel dial indicator to position the grinding
spindle head: This machine feature makes it easy to
properly set the height of the grinding spindle the
required distance above the cutter center line to give
the needed clearance angle to the cutting edge of the
end mill. Used in conjunction with the vernier height
gage, it provides a quick and foolprool method of 9 4 close-up view of a dull end mill in the process of being
machine setup. ground.
mechanism that has a pointed finger sticking upward,
5) The micrometer head and way bar hook already angled to the left. That's the lip support mechanism,
described in item 1 above.
and it's fastened to the end of a stiff slide member (item
These five additions to the Quorn are shown in the 21, the lip support bar. Additionally, just above the
layout drawing. I would be the last person to claim that grinding spindle housing is suspended a long-travel dial
what I have assembled is the ultimate tool-grinding indicator and its mounting arm (items 26 and 27),
machine, hut I think it's safe to say that, now, the which are not shown on the layout drawing due to lack
winder is closer to the ideal that Chaddock intended. of space hut which provide the vertical grinding spindle
This machine has ended a major source of frustration offset measurement needed when the machine is being
for me and lets me derive a lot more enjoyment from set up to grind the flute clearance angle (usually 6) on a
my hobby. dull end mill.
Since one picture is supposedly worth 1,000 words, let's Photo 2 exhibits the rear of the machine and shows the
not waste a lot of time talking and look at a bunch of backside features of the things mentioned in Photo 1; it
pictures. Photo 1 isa frontal view of my machine as it also pictures the way the lip support bar is mounted on
now looks. You can certainly see the air spindle and air the air bearing housing, as well as the dial indicator
spindle housing on the right end of the machine) they support mounting to the column of the machine. It also
are items 15 and 17, respectively, on the parts list. shows the air inlet plumbing on the air bearing housing,
Directly under the left end of the air spindle is hung a and the way the micrometer head is positioned on the

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 rear way bar of the machine and is able to control the
amount of "rocking" motion imparted to the work
spindle assembly during the lip clearance grinding
operation. It also shows how the entire lip
support mechanism is "married" to the air
spindle and the mating spindle housing, so
the end mill always stays on the lip
support finger during grinding and also
when the work spindle is "rocked"
away from the grinding wheel as
the cutter is being rotated to
present a new dull flute to
the wheel.
Photo , shows the vernier
height gage with a 4
long, ground, 1/4 x 1/2"
tool bit attachment), to
determine the height
of the work spindle
center line, the lip
support finger height,
and the grinding
spindle center line 10 A detail view of the air spindle and
clamp collars, wit I, a 3/8", reducer
height. This height bushing installed in the air spindle bore.
measurement is the key to the rapid
setup for the end mill flute grinding operation. If such a
thing as a "secret weapon" is involved in this whole
grinding operation, this is it. It quickly gives the vital
information needed for foolproof setups.
The vernier height gage is being used in Photo 4 to
measure the height of the air spindle center line. It
shows the measurement being made to the rounded
diameter part of the half-pin tool. The reason is that it
is easier and faster to set the height gage to just touch
the top diameter of the half-pin tool than to find the
accurate height of the flat surface part of the half pin.
Since I need the actual height of the work spindle center
line, what I do is subtract 0.250" from the vernier
11 .1 detail rear view of the air spindle housing assembly sho.ving
the air inlet for the air bearing housing.
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reading, as it is a 0.500' diameter half pin.
Then, I write that value on a note pad so I
uon't forget, because I will shortly need the
umber again.
n Photo 5, the height gage is being used to
determine the actual height of the grinding
pindIe center line, it that number is any different
rrom the measured value of the work spindle center
.me, I adjust the grinding spindle center line height to
be the same as the work spindle center line height.
With the center line height of both the grinding spindle
and the air spindle measured to be the
same, the height of the lip support
finger is set to coincide with
the height of the center lines of
both the work head and
grinding head spindles (Photo
6). Here, I take the actual
measured value of the air
spindle and grinding spindle
center lines and subtract 0.250"
from the measured height. Then I
set the lip support finger height to the
computed value.
When all the center line measurements and
adjustments are completed, what remains is to zero out
the long travel dial indicator, then elevate the grinding
spindle center line by the amount calculated from the
expression:
Elevation distance = sin (desired clearance angle) x
grinding wheel radius
For a 2l4 diameter wheel and a 6 desired clearance
angle, the elevation distance becomes:
Elevation distance 1-1/8' x sin 6 (0.10451
Elevation distance = 0.117' Photo 7).
With the machine center line adjustments completed,
you can now insert a dull end mill in the work spindle
and set the stop collar (item 16) adjustments and
advance the dull cutter to the wheel. It is probable that
at this point you will need to adjust the micrometer
head position and rear way bar hook to get the required
work head movement toward and away from the
grinding wheel. This is a quickly made setting and
when it is done you are ready to make your grind. The
grind always starts at the shank end of the flute (Photo
8), proceeding toward the tip end of the cutter. Go easy
on the amount of stock removal.
A grind of .001" is plenty heavy. Photo 9 shows the
shiny grind area on the flutes of a dull end mill being
reground. It might he a narrow looking land on the
periphery of the cutter, but nonetheless the cutting edge
is razor sharp.
With the main features of the machine well in mind, we
can now look at the specific elements that make up the
assembly. The air spindle itself and the air spindle
 13 .4 general view of the air spindle assembly, with the entire cutter lip support
inechanisni in its operating position.

12 A rear end view of

the air spindle housing,
showing the lip suppofl
bar guide and clamping
arrangement.
housing were described in the May/June 1998 issue of
HSM, which details the specific technique used to make
an air spindle and its mating air bearing housing. The
air spindle (item 151 and the stop collars item 16) are
shown in Photo 10. The general details of the air
bearing housing are apparent in Photos 11 and 12, with
Photo 12 showing the particulars of the lip support 14 This view flu, strait's how the grind of the dull cutter starts at
guide (item 20). Photo 13 is a rear view close-up shot of the top end of the flute.
the manner in which all of these diverse elements come
together to form the "stand-alone" assembly that can be
added to or removed from the Quorn structure as the
particular grinding problem dictates.
The flute grinding operation is designed to happen as
shown in Photos 14 and IS. As in Photo 14, the grind
always starts at the top end of the flute and progresses
to the tip (Photo 15). That way, with downward
rotation, frictional force at the cutting point of the
wheel, the cutter is always held down on the lip support
rest, and can be moved across the face of the wheel by
the slightest rightward pressure of the finger on the air
spindle. When first experienced, it is an amazing
sensation.
Next time we'll get underway with the making of chips.

15 Thi.s rie;s chnws how the grind progresses to

the tip end of the flute, with the end mill still
being supported by the lip support finger.

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