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make your adjustments. Turning the cutter backwards will bump the key blank without cutting it - if
the stylus was not adjusted forward enough to miss the key blank.
Upon verifying that the cutter wheel misses the key blank – you may switch
ON
your key machine.
Take the 1” x 4” piece of writing paper you made earlier and hold one end of it between the spinning
cutter wheel and the blade of the key blank.
Use the 1/8” Allen wrench to slowly and carefully back off on the set screw adjustment- at the same
time we recommend that you slowly move the 1” x 4” piece of paper from side to side along the blade
of the key blank to assist you in detecting when the cutter wheel’s teeth first contact the paper. When
the cutter wheel first contacts the paper the paper will be shaved almost without any sound-you must
back off the stylus very slowly for this to work.
NOTE:
Use the Allen wrench as a “clock” to measure how much you are moving the stylus.
The pitch of the setscrew is 28 threads per inch, which translated to about 035” (35 thousandths).
1/ 4 turn equals about .009” and half of that (1/8 turn) equals about 3- ½ thousandths which is about
the thickness of the piece of paper you are using.
If you back off the stylus with Allen wrench you can easily observe 1/8 turn. Backing off the stylus in
1/8 turn increments will speed up the process considerably- sliding the piece of paper across the front
of the cutter wheel after each 1/8 turn will establish a simple routine and make the job less tedious to
perform.
Once you have the cutter wheel touching the paper you may slow down the procedure to very small
increments- each time moving the piece of paper from side to side in front of the spinning cutter wheel.
Stop when the piece of paper is cut through to the last few fibers. You have now very accurately
adjusted the depth of cut on your key machine.
Switch OFF the key machine.
CAREFULLY
hold the Allen wrench in place and use you 7/16” wrench to tighten the Hex Jam Nut
moderate tightness should be enough.
Verify that the tightening of the 7/16” Hex Jam Nut did not alter the adjustment by switching ON the
machine and verifying that the cutter wheel just “ticks” the blade of the key blank. We recommend
moving the machine’s “stick-shift” lever very slightly to the right- and at the same time listening to the
cutter wheel for the very faint “ticking” sound of the cutter wheel teeth barely grazing the key blank.
DO NOT
go back and forth over the same spot! If you use the same spot more than once your stylus
will burnish a spot on the key blank that is lower that the rest of the blank.
Switch OFF the key machine
Further verification of depth adjustment is recommended. With the machine switched OFF and the
carriage pulled back away from the stylus from side to side while pushing against it in an attempt to
drive it further back. Now carefully release the carriage and position it so the key in the left vise jaw
LIGHTLY
contacts the stylus just to the side of where the adjustment was made. Switch ON the key
machine and verify that the cutter wheel just “ticks” the blade of the key blank by moving the
machine’s “stick-shift” lever very slightly to the right- and at the same time listening to the cutter
wheel for the very faint “ticking” sound of cutter wheel teeth barely grazing the key blank.
DO NOT
Go back and forth over the same spot! If you see the same spot more than once your stylus will burnish
a spot on the key blank that is lower than the rest of the blank.
Summary of Contents for RY256
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