Quick Change Toolpost for Storebro

[Hawkeye]

To my way of thinking, getting rid of the need for shims on the four-way or tweaking the rocker on the original toolpost makes almost anything else quick.

[PixMan]

(01-20-2014, 12:04 AM)Hawkeye Wrote: To my way of thinking, getting rid of the need for shims on the four-way or tweaking the rocker on the original toolpost makes almost anything else quick.

So true. I spent 6 years early in my career running a Polish-made lathe with a 27-1/2" (700mm) 4-jaw chuck and one of those 4-way indexing posts. I still have a pile of various shims in my toolbox. Getting tools raised to center height was always a chore, though nothing like trying to lower one!

[stevec]

(01-19-2014, 12:14 PM)Hawkeye Wrote: It's no big thing, in a hobby environment, to reach for the wrench, which is always close at hand.

Maybe not for you Hawk but ALL the tools I have close at hand, although easy to reach, are never easy to find.

[Hawkeye]

I made myself a rule a couple of years ago that I could only put the scriber down in the corner of the drawer on one particular bench. Any time I put it somewhere else, no matter how logical, I can't find it.

[stevec]

I have trouble remembering the rules I make, let alone obeying them.

[Hawkeye]

That's why I just have one rule. I can handle that.

[Hawkeye]

I've been a bit slow on making any more toolholders because I needed to move the car out of the garage to get enough room around the big bandsaw to handle the 5' piece of 2" x 2" steel I picked up. Too tired after work to bother with all that. Yesterday, I got home from a trip out and left the car outside. To make it all worthwhile, I cut half a dozen blocks in two sizes and two different lengths. All out of excuses now.

Holder #3 is a 3/4" boring bar holder. Since it will only be used parallel to the ways, it doesn't need to be 4" long. I'm getting better at cutting the dovetails. I can cut 0.050" DOC with each pass of the single-insert carbide cutter.

Once the basics were done, the holder went into the toopost for boring on the lathe. Centre drill, then passes with progressively sized drill bits to get close to the final size. I have quite a few adjustable reamers, some of which came with the big lathe. Unfortunately, 3/4" wasn't included in the mix. Finished off with a 3/4" bit, which cut a tiny bit over.
   

The usual drilling and tapping for the clamping screws, then back to the Victoria for the slitting. I got around 20 slitting saws with the mill, so it was no problem finding one that would do the job.
   

It took quite a lot of torque on the clamping screws to tighten up the holder, but that wasn't unexpected. The steel block was quite thick. you can see a slot on the top of the holder. That runs down about 3/8" to allow the metal to bend a bit easier. Still lots of meat below the boring bar, where it needs to be. The black double-end bar is one that came with the lathe.
   

[Hawkeye]

I decided to switch to production mode to make a bunch of blanks for toolholders. This way, each tooling setup only has to be done once.

First step is to drill holes to remove some of the waste in the dovetails.
   

Next, the blanks are gang-milled to remove metal beside the dovetails.
   

All five blanks ready to turn into specific toolholders. The short one in the middle will become a swing-up threading tool.
   

[Hawkeye]

I won't bore you with every toolholder I make. This one is a bit different, so I'm adding it to the thread. I've wanted to try a swing-up threading tool for some time, so it made sense to make one for this lathe. I have two sets of 16mm carbide cutters, so I used one of them to make this tool.
   

When necessary, the cutter can be lifted completely out of the way. In normal usage, of course, it only swings up enough to clear the thread on the return trip.
   

I now have five toolholders made, plus three dovetailed blanks waiting for me to decide what sizes and types I need next.
   

[stevec]

Thanks Mike, now I've got another thing to add to my must do list, a swing up threading tool.