Making quick change tool post holders (picture heavy)

[PixMan]

What nice job, and what a LOT of work that was from start to finish. Couple of questions:

Are the adjustment knobs heat treated now from heating them up and quenching in oil, or was that just to blacken them?

What kind of milling machine is that? Does it not have a hand operated quill? If I was making something like that on the Bridgeport, I would have used the quill to power tap those holes.

Really nice work, and we all truly appreciate seeing the documentation.

[Dave J]

Thanks guys it was a lot of work, a few hours a day over a few weeks.

Piman
They are just mild steel blackened, comes up great if you can heat the part and are not worried about distortion.

My mill is a HM52 (Grizzly 2617 in the US now discontinued)
It's 240 volt single phase with no quill feed,






I would need a clutch tapping head which are about $500 over here, to much for a home shop and I don't do this many holes every day.
It only took around an hour to tap them with a sharp tap with the coolant washing away the chips, surprised me.

Also the adjusters had to be done in the bench vice as the slipped in the smooth vice jaws of the machine vice, so had to be done by hand (60 odd)
I made the adjusters a tight thread so they would be more accurate, it took some pulling on a large tap handle to tap them and cleaning the tap magic off each time, they took a longer.

Dave

[Dave J]

Here are some detailed shots of how the tool post works for those that are not familiar with it. I think it simpler than the wedge style and also think the tool holders are easier to make than the dovetail ones.
It would not be hard to make up a tool post in the home work shop.

Sorry about the crappy pictures they are off my phone.













Dave

[stevec]

Interesting! Dave, what are the upper cams on the toolholder clamping studs for and do they bear on the round spacer with the 2 flats?
(I'm assuming the spacer with the 2 flats is isn't threaded down the main clamping post).
I think that making the dovetail toolholders would be easier than the ones you made, I'll let you know when I get a round toit

[PixMan]

(04-06-2013, 09:36 PM)Dave J Wrote: Thanks guys it was a lot of work, a few hours a day over a few weeks.

Pixman
They are just mild steel blackened, comes up great if you can heat the part and are not worried about distortion.

My mill is a HM52 (Grizzly 2617 in the US now discontinued)
It's 240 volt single phase with no quill feed,

I would need a clutch tapping head which are about $500 over here, to much for a home shop and I don't do this many holes every day.
It only took around an hour to tap them with a sharp tap with the coolant washing away the chips, surprised me.

Also the adjusters had to be done in the bench vice as the slipped in the smooth vice jaws of the machine vice, so had to be done by hand (60 odd)
I made the adjusters a tight thread so they would be more accurate, it took some pulling on a large tap handle to tap them and cleaning the tap magic off each time, they took a longer.

Dave

Dave,

You do NOT need a quill that feeds nor a tapping head to power tap parts like that. I suggest you get a piece of scrap steel, some tapping fluid or paste, and a good spiral point tap. Check this video I made and you'll see how easy it is to use the mill for this. My machine is only 1HP, though it is 3-phase power and reverses quickly. I do the same thing on the lathe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anR-E2AVU...fAqCJOzU_g

[Dave J]

Thanks, yeah I know, I have heaps of standard taps and almost bought a spiral point one to do the job, then went to see how long it would hake and they where done in around an hour.
Every tool holder had a blind one in the center so it would have easy broken the tap and would have needed doing by hand anyway.

Dave

[Dave J]

(04-08-2013, 06:29 AM)stevec Wrote: Interesting! Dave, what are the upper cams on the toolholder clamping studs for and do they bear on the round spacer with the 2 flats?
(I'm assuming the spacer with the 2 flats is isn't threaded down the main clamping post).
I think that making the dovetail toolholders would be easier than the ones you made, I'll let you know when I get a round toit

Hi Steve
The cams are round top and bottom and the center is the cam which pushes and pulls on the plunger.

There is one cam at the very top and the other is a true round, this is so as you turn it to lock/unlock it moves away allowing the adjuster to be slide in and out vertically.
The adjuster base goes between these 2 but is not tight, the gravity makes the adjuster rest on the bottom one.

The spacer with the 2 flats is just that a spacer to get the tool post nut above the cams and to clear them with the 2 flats. It is free to rotate a little and is a factory one that came with it.

Dave

[Dave J]

I will just add there is a nut that goes on top of the thread to hold the tool post down, I took it off as you cant get the cams out without taking it off first.

Dave

[PixMan]

Dave,

When I was working in a small job shop and learned to power tap, I broke a tap in a blind hole ONCE. After that, I learned to mark the depth that I wanted the tap to go to by wrapping it with masking tape as the depth marker. It worked a charm.

[stevec]

(04-08-2013, 07:31 AM)Dave J Wrote: Hi Steve
The cams are round top and bottom and the center is the cam which pushes and pulls on the plunger.

There is one cam at the very top and the other is a true round, this is so as you turn it to lock/unlock it moves away allowing the adjuster to be slide in and out vertically.
The adjuster base goes between these 2 but is not tight, the gravity makes the adjuster rest on the bottom one.

The spacer with the 2 flats is just that a spacer to get the tool post nut above the cams and to clear them with the 2 flats. It is free to rotate a little and is a factory one that came with it.

Dave

Thanks a bunch Dave, my head hurts and now I don't even understand my own question.