Dovetail cutter???

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by John Sabato

Here is an article on how to make one using cutting inserts that you can adapt to the size you want to cut.

thanks for your reply, John! My mail tooling distributor, Travers http://www.travers.com/ sells just such a dovetail cutter...for very large dovetails...like lathe & mill ways...which looks like what your pic is...

Anything as small as a Luger front sight dovetail cutter is beyond my patience to make from scratch...Just too small...

I thought someone mentioned about a year ago that there was a vendor who sold dovetail cutters of that size...I think it is 55º instead of 60º...but with a slot that small, the 5º difference is unnoticeable...

If I had the cutter, I could re-use a Luger or P38 sight...Otherwise, I have to make the sight in-place, from scratch...

I do have small safe files, but the edges are pretty rounded...I might have to buy a couple new files...

I might try that first...Since the .245" cutter is bigger, it would cut away any filing mistakes...

Edit: Hmmmm...Here's a place...Not the Luger Metric cutter, but the 3/16" cutter with multiple passes should work...

http://www.harveytool.com/products/p...vetail+Cutters

I need to check the CD and confirm the angle...It's not given in degrees...have to drag out my trig tables and actually [gasp!] do some basic trigonometry...

...Or I could hold up a Luger sight to my thread gage and eyeball it...

Edit2: I eyeballed it to my 60º thread gage...It ain't no 60º...

OK; I did the math...It works out to 41º from the CD prints...

I may just go ahead and make my own sights...

Edit3: Harvey Tools makes a 40º dovetail cutter...

http://www.harveytool.com/products/p...&category_id=1

All is right in the world...

[sheepherder]

I ordered the 40º x 3/16" carbide dovetail cutter today...actually cheaper than listed on the web site...If anyone else is interested, they do not sell directly, only through their distributors...You can find the closest one on their site...and CC order from the dist...

FWIW, back in '69 when I worked for Twin Industries Inc (an aerospace subcontractor) dovetails were cut by a pieplate-shaped cutter on a horizontal mill...the workpiece was clamped at the desired angle, and one side of the dovetail cut...then the piece was rotated and the opposite side cut...

Something like this...I don't know if that is how the Luger was done, but it is a quicker and safer method than a teeny tiny dovetail cutter...

[sheepherder]

The Harvey Tool dovetail cutter came today...Looks like a good fit...

I don't have a barrel ready to fit a sight to at this time...but I will postmark this thread for further revision...

[John Sabato]

The horizontal milling machine with the cutter you described certainly looks like a fine solution and doesn't look as fragile as that tiny dovetail cutter...

Originally Posted by postino

FWIW, back in'69 when I worked for Twin Industries Inc (an aerospace subcontractor) dovetails were cut by a pieplate-shaped cutter on a horizontal mill...the workpiece was clamped at the desired angle, and one side of the dovetail cut...then the piece was rotated and the opposite side cut...

Something like this...I don't know if that is how the Luger was done, but it is a quicker and safer method than a teeny tiny dovetail cutter...