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So, I went to a tradeshow – I like to do that from time to time to see what’s out there and satisfy my desire to see and learn about things I am not familiar with – Going to a tradeshow is not that expensive, you will usually find a free ticket from tooling suppliers or machine tool builders. I don’t think anyone has to pay regular entry prices for manufacturing tradeshow.

The show was the INTEC in Leipzig, I went on 11.03.2025, saw some interesting new things, met people I know and had some good talks.

INTEC is small; you can absolutely do the entire tradeshow in a day without it becoming a marathon. If you go to a show like EMO, which is the worlds biggest manufacturing tradeshow, you must realistically plan at least two days – Or have a very well laid out plan which booths you visit.

And if you can, go via public transport – it’s exhausting enough, no need to add driving yourself as added stress.

You are on your feet walking all day– Wear comfortable shoes. Bring something to drink. Tradeshow catering is absurdly expensive. Or you get some free snacks/drinks at the tradeshow booths.

I’ll give a brief rundown of the vendors I visited/talked to:

Simtek

https://www.simtek.com

Simtek had a rather interesting system for small ID boring, with a carbide boring bar, that’s held in a holder designed like a collet chuck – With the boring bar having a slot ground along its length to keep the rotational orientation fixed. The idea is to have the stickout adjustable for the machining task on hand, without stocking a large amount of solid carbide boring tools.

A similar solution is available for their interchangeable head system, but here the rotation is locked by the elliptical shape of the tool shank.

https://www.simtek.com/en_DE/length-variable-tooling-solutions

This gives me ideas for homebrew length adjustable boring bars.

Arnold Werkzeugmaschinen

Arnold Werkzeugmaschinen – From whom I have a rebuilt Weiler Primus and a not rebuilt Deckel FP1 – had a very nice Weiler Praktikant and a late Deckel FP1 Active in their Distinct White/Grey Paint Scheme on Display, fully rebuilt.

https://www.arnold-werkzeugmaschinen.de

Mapal

https://mapal.com

Mapal – I had known them for Reamers and special tooling for large scale production – Had some interesting little things that I don’t want to gloss over – HSK flanges to build your own HSK spindles or retrofit existing spindles to accept HSK tooling.

Gühring offers a similar range of parts, but its good to have options.

https://webshop.guehring.de/4586

These Countersinks/Counterbores have a depth stop with a collar and can be retrofitted with dust extraction. Their main use is in the aviation industry, where precise depth control for countersinks is required.

F. Britsch

F. Britsch had a huge range of collets and toolholders on display, turning tools for swiss machines and small floating reamer holders.

https://f-britsch.com

Relevant for me, they have “Kopfspannzangen” – Large head diameter and soft collets for my Weiler Primus, which uses 358E / W23 collets. Good to know.

Effgen

At the booth of Effgen I saw interesting core drills – Tubes with a head out of metal bond diamond. Very similar to what a contractor would use to drill into a brick wall.

https://effgen.com

https://effgen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/05-GlassCeramic_Glasaeramik-2014.pdf

But these are made to drill things like Zerodur, a glass-ceramic in a CNC mill – With some absurd diameter/depth ratios. They had an example with a 6mm core drill, going about 200mm deep at the booth and the application engineer I talked to mentioned that they can go substantially deeper.

Interesting, not an everyday tool and it requires high pressure through spindle coolant.

Weiler / Kunzmann

Lathes:

https://www.weiler.de

Milling machines:

https://www.kunzmann-fraesmaschinen.de

Weiler / Kunzmann had a range of manual and CNC lathes/toolroom mills on show.

Weiler Primus – A very different machine than the vintage Primus I own. Its almost double the weight and size now.

Boka

https://www.bokatools.de

Boka had this odd-looking vertical slotter shown.

It looks like the X/Y table and column of a RF45 benchtop mill with a Bridgeport-style slotting head attached to it.

Fehlmann

https://www.fehlmann.com

I always enjoy seeing manual equipment – Fehlmann still has a manual mill/drill in their lineup:

Very nice machines, quick change spindle tooling, they are available completely manual or with a point-point NC control.

In my opinion the form factor of the machine with the drawer cabinet integrated in the stand and the tool storage carousel on the left makes it a great piece of support equipment.

Nine9

Nine9 had their range of chamfer, engraving and spotting tools shown

https://nine9cuttingtools.site

With the smallest, an interchangeable head chamfer mill with a 5mm in diameter head or an inserted chamfer mill with tiny 4mm square inserts and 12mm overall diameter.

Interchangeable head chamfer mill:

https://nine9cuttingtools.site/en/nine9-main-catalogue/#nine9_main_catalouge_v_2025-2026_eng_version/92/

Inserted chamfer mill:

https://nine9cuttingtools.site/en/nine9-main-catalogue/#nine9_main_catalouge_v_2025-2026_eng_version/88/

Diatest

Diatest has interesting bore measuring solutions, like the BMD plug gage which measures the bore diameter without any influence from the user.

https://www.diatest.com

https://www.diatest.com/en/products/solutions-for-gauging/measurement-of-diameter-and-length/bmd-plug-gauge-diatest

Another item Diatest has in their lineup is a bench micrometer:

Personally, I stay away from the booths for general 3/5 axis CNC mills or lathes – I am not in the business of buying one and at some point, it gets very repetitive.

But there’s always outliers of course 😊

Willemin Macodel

https://willemin-macodel.com

Willemin is rather novel with their bar feed mill-turn machines, that have a vise for second side machining.

The inside of the machine – The vertical mill spindle can be tilted and also hold turning tools.

The spindle on the left acts as a lathe spindle but also an indexing spindle for 4/5 axis machining.

Above the grey hose with the right-angle connector in the lower right of the picture the flip up vise can be seen, that is used for backside machining. Parts that have been turned/milled in the main spindle can be grabbed with the vise flipped up, the part can be cut off with a slitting saw or an endmill and then finished in the vise.

If you go to a tradeshow, even as a hobbyist – Don’t hesitate to talk to the people at the booths. Most of them will happily talk to you and show you around, even if you are not in the business of buying a 5 Axis mill for half a million Euros.

When it comes to shop organization, many of us have a strong desire to find the perfect system to get everything under control.

One thing I struggle with is drawers:

Drawers are great.

They are very space efficient and protect items stored in them from the harsh shop environment.

Drawers suck.

They are the place where stuff goes to die, forgotten to times. It’s very easy to throw things in a drawer and stack things on top of each other – Creating a clean shop, but a tangled mess of items in the drawer.

The industry has come up with a plethora of solutions to tame the beast of chaos, starting with injection molded boxed, troughs that neatly nest against each other, milled or waterjet cut formfitting foam inserts.

Theres also DIY-able solutions like layered foam (“Kaizen foam” to name one brand) that can be cut with a box cutter and peeled off layer by layer to create form fitting cavities to nest your expensive tools.

Grid Systems

With the rise of rather fast 3d printers there always have been 3d printed solutions with one of the latest and most widespread being “Gridfinity”.

It’s a grid system – hence the name – that allows bins, sorters and custom sorters to be arranged in drawers. The base grid stops the bins from sliding around.

Zack Freedman, who came up with the System:

https://youtu.be/ra_9zU-mnl8?si=2k4C0i8m3Jb4uK93

Clough42, utilizing it in his machine shop:

https://youtu.be/RYA0xLryF-g?si=8aHtaguexg4caMEn

Example of very well laid out drawers for metrology tools, screenshots taken from Clough42s video.

Theres also commercial Versions that are not compatible with Gridfinity – For example the Gridline System from Hoffmann, using a 25mm grid on a rubber mat:

https://www.hoffmann-group.com/GB/en/houk/areas-of-application/workstations-and-storage/garant-gridline/e/45304

I use the Gridline System in a few drawers for things like cutting tools:

Since I don’t get much enjoyment out of 3d modelling and printing bins and sorters, doing the bulk of organization with commercially available bins is my preferred solution.

I can always add some specialty bins like these 3d printed shell mill holders with a peg in the center to keep the cutters from rattling around

The appeal of modular systems like Gridfinity or Gridline is to not have to commit to a layout or certain tools. That was also my argument against shadow boards or milled foam inserts for a very long time. Also, since the design is open source, it’s easy to create and add special bins, holders and sorter for all kinds of tools and hardware.

It turned out that for me, once I figured out what tools I use most, I was able to purge away a lot of things and put them in deep storage or get entirely rid of them.

My everyday metrology tools are such a case – It used to be a quite messy and chaotic pile of tools, some of them on top of each other, scattered across a few drawers.

Foam shadow boards

I wanted to try milled foam. Compared to the rather light quality of Kaizen foam, the heavy closed cell foam used for this purpose lasts in my experience very long – At my day job we had tool carts with the same foam, milled for all the tools to fit neatly and they held up to industrial use and abuse very well. Very Expensive, but very nice.

Several companies have online configuration tools to create custom foam inlays from drawings or even photographs.

But being a penny pincher, I wanted to DIY it.

I ordered the sheets of foam from HBM:

https://www.hbm-machines.com/de/p/hbm-schaumstoffeinlage-585-x-410-x-40-mm-fur-werkzeugwagen-rot

The normal procedure would be to draw the layout of the foam inserts in CAD, maybe with the aid of photographs and then create toolpaths for a CNC mill from those drawings/models.

This is not a process that I enjoy very much, and I don’t have a large CNC router anymore to cut large sheets of foam.

Instead, I laid the tools physically out on the foam – The foam was cut to size beforehand with a circular saw – and traced them with a whiteout pen.

To cut the pockets, I went with the most primitive solution, a handheld woodworking router with a 6mm single flute endmill.

As expected, that worked marvelous – The foam cuts nicely with a crisp edge. As for milling strategy, I rough out most of the pocket with fast zig zag movements and then trace around the contour relatively slow, conventional milling. If your router allows for dust extraction, that helps with visibility and controlling the mess.

Round pockets and holes can be cut with a sharp woodworking drill bit or Forstner bit.

If you make a mistake, large sections of the foam can be cut out and a larger chunk can be pressed and glued in.

The results are decent:

You can see that the drawers not only have form fitting cutouts for the tools, but also some integrated bins for items like screws or indicator snugs.

Not everything has to have a fitting pocket, having items in bulk in a bin is OK for me.

• There is no optimal solution
• Organization systems are temporary
• Don’t fear trying a temporary solution before fully commiting
• Things that might have worked for you in the past might not work anymore tomorrow

One thing that I noticed when learning about toolroom practices around the world – Europe tends to run separate ID/OD grinders for even very small and simple operations, while in the USA the surface grinder gets utilized as a universal platform for all sorts of grinding operations, including a fair share of round work.

For grinding round parts, you need a spindle to spin the work – The most well-known one is probably the Harig Grind-All. Also known as “Punch grinder”, “Punch former”, “Whirly Jig” or “Spin fixture”

Assfalg400 Punch former with a sliding v-block

Newbould indexer with a sliding v-block and a 5C collet taper, when the v-block is removed.
(Picture by Adam Demuth)

These are fairly accurate devices that can be used for grinding round work, perform direct indexing, indexing via a vernier scale or indexing/segment indexing via adjustable stops.

Be aware, they are expensive tools, and they should be handled with care.

The earliest version of what we know today as a spin fixture can be found in a patent from 1946 – Still very crude:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US2449459A

A later patent, granted in 1960 shows already something that’s looking like the spin fixtures we can buy today – It also shows the bearing arrangement with the single row of balls running between beveled races, forming a four-point contact bearing.

https://www.datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?id=63980

https://patents.google.com/patent/US3094821

The basic Layout is always the same:

• A housing with a foot, usually meant to go onto a magnetic chuck.
• A short spindle, running in some means of ball bearings. Most designs use a single row of balls running on integral ball races.
• Work holding: Semi-Standard is a sliding V-Block to hold workpieces and adjust them to run true.
  Options are 3 Jaw Chucks, ER Collets Chucks, integral Collet Tapers, Magnetic Chucks or integral zero-point systems like 3R or Erowa.
  Systems with an integrated ER Collet chucks or 3 jaw chuck are in my opinion a very bad choice for general use,
• Most have rotational stops that can be adjusted and integral 24 Position direct indexing with a shot pin.
  Additional systems like the Newbould indexer exist, that allow for very accurate angle setting via differential face gears.
  Adam demonstrates the face gear indexing in this Video:
  
  Differential gear tooth indexing
  https://youtu.be/3oE2axs0I5o?si=Pyjh15RAdjISfdT1
  

There is a modification to the sliding V-Block version, that allows a sliding motion in two axis – the second axis sliding motion is done via a rack/pinion drive from the backside of the spindle. This arrangement blocks the trough bore of the spindle, which makes it in my opinion less desirable for general work.

Some manufacturers/sellers call them one-way / two way punch formers.

This second axis of motion allows to dress wheels at an angle with a diamond held in the V-Block or to create polygon shapes with corner radii offset in two axes.

Applications

• Grinding round/prismatic Workpieces
• Toolgrinding
• General indexing/rotary work
• Other

Examples of operation:

Tool grinding, ID threading tool:

Grinding a 55° threading tool out of a 8mm solid carbide blank.

All operations are performed using the spin fixture on the surface grinder. The neck of the tool is ground by putting the blank out of center, which is very easy to be done with the sliding v-block.

In general, the surface grinder with a magnetic chuck is a very powerful tool to grind tools, very often faster to setup than a real T&C grinder.

Grinding the excentric neck and splitting the cutting portion in half. The punch grinder is spaced off the fence with a parallel.

This is a recurring theme in using them – They are very universal, but with that universality comes some pain in getting them into a spot that allows you to access the part, not run out of machine travel and not to collide with anything.

Since the spin fixture can be taken off the magnet and go back on very repeatable against the fence, it is easy to take it off, use whatever measuring instrument – like a toolmakers microscope – for inspection and go back to the grinder for adjustments.

Angles can be set very easily with angle blocks against the fence.

Tool grinding, boring bar

This is an example where a boring bar has been ground from a 8mm solid carbide rod to fit a certain application.

The angle adjustable transfer block is a great addition to the punch grinder, it allows very quick angular settings with having to set a sine plate.

Grinding a custom plug gage / gage pin

Sometimes a custom gage pin is required – Cylindrical grinding out of hardened stock is a very viable option.

Here an old 16mm HSS Endmill is cut down and ground to a diameter of 12.6mm. Note that the V-Block has been removed and a ER25 chuck has been installed instead for clearance reasons (The clamp of the V-Block was interfering with the wheel nut.)

Indexing on the milling machine angular cross holes

For light duty applications, the punch grinder can be used on milling machines as a workholding and indexing tool.

In this case, the punch grinder is held in a vise at an angle, to drill angled holes into a small component.

A tooling ball, superglued to the end of the workpiece is used to locate the work.

The workpiece was too short to be held directly in the V-block of the punch grinder, instead a ER11 collet chuck with straight shank is held in the V-block and used to clamp the part.

Adam Demuth provided me with a wealth of pictures for uncommon setups using different spin fixtures – Thank you Adam!

Adam on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adamthemachinist

ID Grinding

ID grinding a large, hardened ring using a CBN Cup wheel. The work is mounted to a Newbould indexer.
Adam mentioned that the Newbould indexers have a stiffer bearing arrangement than others, which is very helpful in situations with heavy/larger workpieces or large overhangs.

Grinding edge radii on small workpieces

Speaking of large overhangs, this is an interesting fixture to put radii on the edges of workpieces.

Adam mentioned some problems with this setup: The spindle axis of the spin fixtures is not that perfectly aligned with the base of the fixture as we would like, and the large overhang is on the edge of practicability for this Harig Grind All Nr. 1.

This fixture is mounted on the spin fixture instead of the stock V-Block – Two axis of movement are required to get the corner of the workpiece into the right position.

The first one is sliding the entire fixture in the ground slot of the spin fixture (Red)

The second axis is built into the fixture, by sliding the small block, that’s inset to the fixture, side to side. (Green)

This block has also threaded holes for work holding and work stops.

Using a spin fixture as a bender

Here the spin fixture is utilized in a very uncommon scenario – As a bending fixture for prototype work.

A bending blade is held in the V-block and a workpiece rest/clamp is mounted on a base plate.

This goes to show the spin fixture has uses outside of grinders/mills/jig grinders too.

ID work on a Jig Grinder

This is an interesting setup – Not with a punch grinder, but a 5C spin fixture, also made by Harig. The principles stay the same, would also work with a punch grinder.

The spin fixture is mounted against a large rotary table to swing it at an angle. This arrangement can be used for tapered ID grinding, grind radii or to, grind radius pockets.

There is a hand full of manufacturers making and selling Spin fixtures:

Harig

https://harigmfg.net

 Herman Schmidt

https://www.hschmidt.com/areas/spin-indexing

Imperial Newbould

https://www.imperialnewbould.com

Gin Tech

https://www.gin-chan.com/en-US/pfilter1_1_2-punch-formers

Pfeil Magnettechnik

https://pfeil-magnetspanntechnik.de/Stempel-Schleifgeraet-Delphi1

More exist, but thats the common and to me known ones.

Conclusion

All in all, a punch grinder of any form is a great addition to a machine shop – A surface grinder along with one of these devices can solve a lot of problems, replace in a lot of cases a tool and cutter grinder, its useful for metrology purposes or for delicate work on milling machines.

Something different this time – A scene from a movie classic: The Man with the Golden Gun from 1974

This scene does not look like a movie set, but as if it was filmed in a real shop rented for filming.

Right on entry, we can see a Boley lathe:

When Roger Moores character is aiming down range, we can see a what appears to be a Deckel FP1 on the left and an Oxy-Fuel setup along with a forge in the middle of the frame.

The second picture gives a better view on the FP1 – It could also be an Alexander “Master Toolmaker” (https://www.lathes.co.uk/alexander/) since large parts of the movie where filmed in the UK and Alexander being a British Company making a copy of the Deckel FP1.

While getting some information from Lazar, the gunsmith played by Marne Maitland, we can also see an Excel No.2 die filer.

The entire scene can be reviewed on Youtube:

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN – “I’m now aiming precisely at your groin…”

https://youtu.be/rzlDjnUWq1Q?si=rtdwpsIxdHgzZ6yK

Hi! Stefan here – You might know me as a that long haired dude on Youtube creating videos related to machining.
With this blog I will try to create a spot on the internet that is not created by AI, Language models or other artificial means.