Thread: Tooling I should have made years ago...

Originally Posted by Michael G

I like Bryan's shelf on the side of the shaper myself - I never seem to have convenient flat surfaces to put adjusting tools on. I'm now wondering about one that would hook onto the side of the mill table.

Michael

Buy yourself a worn out Hercus tool and cutter grinder. The table serves beautifully as tool repository!

Jack,
The indicator holder is just a piece of 1/2" key steel with an 8mm hole and a thumbscrew.
Regards.
Martin

Nice job on the holders, but without taking anything away from those who have made some good examples here, I'm just a little curious as to how they save any time over and above a Jacobs chuck in tailstock? Could somebody please explain the process?

Pete

Originally Posted by Pete F

Nice job on the holders, but without taking anything away from those who have made some good examples here, I'm just a little curious as to how they save any time over and above a Jacobs chuck in tailstock? Could somebody please explain the process?

Pete

Hi Pete

It takes but seconds to change the taper out and if your doing multiple parts can be a huge time saver much faster than a chuck even the keyless ones

cheers
Harty

FWIW 1. I always make morse tapers between centres when using the top slide. This allows you to remove them when near size and blue them to check the fit in a commercial MT socket.

FWIW 2. When making a batch make an extra one with a centre drilled hole in the end (i.e. a female centre) for the headstock spindle. This makes it easy to hold a standard lathe centre between the female headstock centre and the normal tailstock centre for setting up the compound angle as shown in Toolman's photo above.

After making it I also found it useful for roughly setting the rotary table (which has a MT socket) in position under the mill spindle, using a 60 degree centre in the spindle. This comes out surprisingly close, and for non-critical work is usually "near enough".

FWIW 3. Another use for extra tapers is to thread the ends to suit surplus chucks from dead battery drills. It is often handy to have extra chucks already set up with the correct drill when doing repetition jobs requiring several different sized holes.

The photo shows some tailstock threading gear. There are 2 and 3 morse taper guides for the dieholders to fit the tailstocks on the two lathes, and die holders for 1 1/2", 1", and the smaller one which BA dies often used - forget the size. These are handy for starting threads square.

The drill chuck which is used for taps is not the best thing for the job. Any tap over about 6 mm will slip in the chuck after only a few threads. It does start the thread square though. A proper tapping chuck would be a great improvement.

Frank.

Added later: Re having several chucks on individual morse tapers, Harty posted the advantges while I was typing the above.

F S

Ok, the reason I ask is that on my lathe I don't think it would be a saver at all. I need to wind the tailstock quill right back to eject a taper, then slide the tailstock back to clear the taper, presumably then put another taper in, etc. As I said, I'm not trying to poo-poo the results here, as getting a series of MT to fit perfectly is no mean feat, but I just can't for the life of me see how it saves any time at all, never mind being a "huge" time saver, but a genuine question in case I'd missed something. If they were mounted on a tailstock turret then for sure they'd save a huge amount of time, but I have both keyless and keyed chucks for my tailstocks and it only takes seconds to change the bits, I very much doubt I could change the taper in less time in fact.

Anyway, I was just curious.

Pete

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

Geez I like the Tos and that Graz, Bryan. Makes my gear look piddly. How does the downfeed indicator cope with the toing and froing?

No problems so far Bob. The clocks are only cheapies. Yes, both machines are substantial lumps, which is nice, but both have had hard lives and have issues. I did buy a house with a big shed and 3 phase, and that's no accident.

Originally Posted by Michael G

I like Bryan's shelf on the side of the shaper myself - I never seem to have convenient flat surfaces to put adjusting tools on. I'm now wondering about one that would hook onto the side of the mill table.

Must admit, that shelf is very useful. After I took a light cut off the table to get all the dings out I promised myself I'd never use it to plonk tools on, hence the shelf.

Originally Posted by harty69

Hi Pete

It takes but seconds to change the taper out and if your doing multiple parts can be a huge time saver much faster than a chuck even the keyless ones

Interesting. I made one of those holders but personally I find a keyless chuck more convenient for small drilling.

Thanks Bryan, I thought I was going mad

I have a complete Hercus bed mounted Turret Attachment, for my 260
But do not use it much because its a bit heavy to lift into position & set up unless there are a lot of repetitive items to machine.
Have been considering a tailstock mounted 6 position turret with its own MT2 mount.
Has anyone had any experience with these ?
regards
Bruce

Different strokes boys.

I have a small 1/8" diameter centre drill mounted in a baby Jacobs 8 1/2 chuck and a Jacobs 14 chuck for all my tailstock drilling. I haven't used my Rohm keyless since I bought the 14. These two Jacobs are both ball bearing chucks and do not slip. Having the centre drill in a chuck certainly beats searching for the loose bit amongst the swill on the chip tray. I've sometimes looked at the tailstock turrets on ebay but never purchased one because of concerns regarding repeatability.

BT

After reading Franks reply I realised I forgot to mention something earlier.
I take the tailstock quill out, blue up the tapers and check it with the quill itself. Doing it with the quill takes away any errors another MT might have and I know it will fit the lathe perfectly.

Dave.

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

Different strokes boys.

I have a small 1/8" diameter centre drill mounted in a baby Jacobs 8 1/2 chuck and a Jacobs 14 chuck for all my tailstock drilling. I haven't used my Rohm keyless since I bought the 14. These two Jacobs are both ball bearing chucks and do not slip. Having the centre drill in a chuck certainly beats searching for the loose bit amongst the swill on the chip tray. I've sometimes looked at the tailstock turrets on ebay but never purchased one because of concerns regarding repeatability.

BT

Bob
Thats been my concern as well, the repeatability.
I would be interested in getting feedback from someone who has used the tailstock mounted turret, as it would simplify many multiple drilling jobs, if in fact they do work?
Bruce

Plenty of guys have made them and from took of it, it all comes down to how well you cut the slots for the lock key for repeatability.
When they are home made you set it in each lock position to drill and ream the tool holder holes, so I would be pretty accurate I would think. I have not heard any complaints about either the bought or homemade ones.
It's on my to do list but I haven't got around to it yet.

Dave

This one really has just been made, and I wish I'd done it years ago.
I have to cross drill round stock occasionally and always have trouble getting holes to go through the centre. I'd heard about using a V block, centred with a 90 degree cone in the chuck, but couldn't work out how to secure them. This is the answer I came up with (the V block was one of a pair in a job lot of tooling, and this has been made to suit it's width). The tapped holes are for securing other bits of kit, such as these blocks being used as a length stop. Having the V block in a channel means that I can centre with the V block under the chuck and then slide it into a better position if necessary for drilling.

Attachment 195386

Pete, using a centre in an adaptor may not save much time if you are only then chucking a small drill bit, but a good proportion of the time I'm using MT bits (over 1/2" diameter) which require ejecting anyway. They sit in a rack next to the lathe with the bit already in them vs. the chuck where I then need to fit a bit to it, so they are handy when all you want to do is drill a centre as well.
Michael