# minimax t124 copy lathe sharpening



## nick22 (Jul 31, 2016)

Hello

I recently purchased a t124 copy lathe off of craigslist for my shop. I am very excited to start using this lathe to help with production of furniture parts. The only thing that has me scratching my head is how to sharpen the cutters. anyone here have experience with sharpening copy lathe cutters? any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
Nick


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## Wildwood (Jul 22, 2012)

Do not know anything about your lathe & copy attachment. So don't know type or size HSS or carbide cutters you have.

Can find both HSS (M2 or M4) 3/16" or 1/4" square or same size round cutters. Idea is to keep same bevel angle & profile when resharpening. You can touch up an edge of the cutters with diamond file by hand or make a holding jig and resharpen on a bench grinder or belt sander.

Lot of copiers now use carbide bits which will end up buying new when old cutters wear out. You can try and touch up an edge with diamond file but will end up replacing cutters eventually.


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## nick22 (Jul 31, 2016)

the lathe is a minimax t 124. one of the cutters is 12×12 x 100mm and the other is 12×12 x 120mm these both come to a point with the sharpening needing to be done on the inside of the v. the other cutter i am unsure of the size off the top of my head but the shape is more of a triangle and the sharpening needs to be done on the inside as well.

http://www.profiledesigntooling.com/copy-lathe-cutters

if you follow this page about 3/4 of the way down it will show the cutters for the t124.

i get how to touch up the edges with diamond files but i dont see how to get the inside of the tool at the proper angle on the bench grinder. it seems like the grinding wheel need to be shaped differently for it to work.


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## Wildwood (Jul 22, 2012)

After looking at your link assume cutters & come in various profiles & widths. You can buy extra cutters from them or a place that sells square tool bits and fashion you own profiles & bevel angles.

http://www.wttool.com/index/page/category/category_id/15882/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=SiteChampion

Found a US supplier of cutters for your lathe but prices pretty expensvie. 
http://copylathe.com/cutters_form.html

Also found people selling cutters on e-bay for lot less not sure if will fit the T124 lathe.

I did some production turning many years ago, used a Vega lathe duplicator on two different lathes. Simply put the cutter in a bit holder, adusted the grinder tool rest and resharpened the cutter(s). Took 30 seconds if that per cutter. The man I worked for used vice grips to hold the bits. I don't recommend the vice grip op!

Use 3/16" square bits on my hollowing rig and made my own tool bit holder when sharpening. For one set up have to round one end of a cutter to fit into a hollowing tool have a holder for that too.

You may find yourself using different profiles & bevel angles on your cutters once get some experience with your lathe.

Good luck with it.


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