Home made tangential tool holders

[toglhot]

Some might find these tool holders interesting.   Tangentials in particular took my interest so I played around with different designs I came up with and these are the results.   I don't have a mill so I use a vertical slide on my lathe for any milling work.   Trying to shape metal using an end mill and vertical slide is extremely time consuming and very limiting so  the holders I made are built up from shaped, smaller bits and pieces welded together and then linished and filed to give an acceptable finish.

A little later I also made some drophead (English style) as well.   Unfortunately, rheumatoid arthritis has taken a huge toll on my body so the use of many tools is either not possible or very limiting, not to mention painful. Hammering and filing are now impossible and winding the wheels on my lathe is extremely painful so I have to keep my time on the tools to a minimum.   

I have figured out a couple of alternatives, the wife being the most useful, closely followed by an electric file, I haven't found an alternative to the hammer yet, other than the wife, and she's not fussed on using hammers, go figure.   She refuses point blank to use the lathe too, says it's dirty, noisy and scary, ridiculous I say!   Anyway, the point of the preceding is, I can't get a finish that is acceptable to me anymore so have to put up with crappy looking tools.   Such is life - a real bitch!

[toglhot]

And here we have a couple of attachments for grinding cutting bits.   The one on the right is for standard bits, the attachment has preset angles which can be set at 55 or 60 degrees.   The one on the left is for grinding tangential bits.   The last picture is of a table with scribed lines for free hand grinding.

[Hawkeye]

Okay. I have to ask. I've never heard of a double tangential. What's the story on that one?

[toglhot]

If I'm turning toward the tailstock the cutting bit and clamp on the left side is removed.   If turning toward the chuck the right side bit and clamp are removed.   Unfortunately, the tool angle is a bit too steep and the trailing corner rubs on tight shoulder cuts so it doesn't work as well as I'd hoped, one day when I've nothing better to do I'll make another. It does make a good 'Guess what this is' item though.

[f350ca]

I like the open groove in the grinder tables. I made tables for mine and simply cut a groove for the miter gages. The grit hangs in there and the gauge won't slide smoothly. Wonder if just drilling through the back would let the grit fall through?