Worden Tool Cutter & Grinder

I had a need to produce more accurately ground HSS tools than could be done by hand. At the time, I looked around at the various cutter and grinders designs available and at the time decided that the Quorn was too much work and that the Worden would be a better option. There are some build blogs available and also some videos covering the Worden.

I ordered a Worden from Hemmingway Kits and it duly arrived in the mail. With a decent lathe and mill, the Worden does not present a difficult build. In fact with all the pre-built and welded ‘framework’ it is relatively easy to put together. I built mine to use a ER11 collet chuck with a 16mm straight body. This works OK, but the collet chuck is larger than desirable and has a greater overhang than is ideal.

At the time I purchased the kit, I also got the kits for radius turning, drill sharpening and slitting saw sharpening. At this time, the only kit that has been fully completed is the radius turning kit. This has been driven by available time, as well as needs.

Pros

• Easy to build
• Little specialised tooling required. (I did get a LH M6 tap and die to ensure that one of the dials operates in the ‘correct’ way
• Normal lathe tool geometries easy and quick to achieve. Rake angles also simple to setup.

Cons

• Limited capability - larger tools will just not fit in the Worden.
• Wheel height fixed
• Some tool geometries are impossible to achieve. (Left handed boring bars presented challenges)
• Accuracy. The table movement forward and reverse is ‘jerky’ and I am never sure if the table once locked is at right angles (parallel) to the wheel.
• Radius jig is limited in tool size and length.