Horizontal arbor rack

[The Metal Butcher]

Looks nice Doc.

I hope you don't have any earthquakes in your area. 😬

Then again you may have bigger issues than 100 milling cutters on the floor.

[nickel-city-fab]

Well, I just drool over that mill. That is all. Then I think of all the effort that went into it, and decide to think about something else for a while.

[JoeLee]

If I had that many cutters I would be looking for a way to organize them too. You can see which one you want real quick.
The wall rack design takes up a lot less space than a cabinet.

JL..............

[Tungsten dipper]

Nice rack! I wonder what it weighs?

[I make chips]

Factory x axis screw?
I got sick of the rack and pinion and had to make mine with 7/8 acme and whittle up a half nut. I put a wuhanium motor drive on the X.
It's a much more useful machine since I put a 90 degree head on it and yes to the X axis wear. I have shimmed the stupid (and broken) non adjustable gib to get it as tight as I can without binding.

I bought mine in the early 80's for a couple hundred bucks without a motor as the Master motors tend to burn up.
Sanding off the many layers of paint a few years ago revealed this.

[J Tiers]

I looked at your cutter storage and wondered, Does he have an fixture for unloading the cutters. In my mind I can see a couple of stands on the bench, thin metal with a V on top to hold the 'arbor'. In use you would find the cutter you want and make a gap between it and the rest of the cutters. Pick up the whole mess and put in the fixture so that the V goes between the cutters and holds up the arbor and a second stand goes on the other end. Slide off the cutters till you get to the one you need,

lg
no neat sig line

Yes, same thing I thought of.

That was my original storage idea. But every time I wanted a cutter, I really hated the clank-clank of them hitting each other as I pulled several off to get to one that was further in on the rod they were on.

Then I was going to cut cardboard pieces to go between them. A LOT of them...... Finally I decided it just was a bad idea overall for me, and went with the drawer and post idea. That way I can put ones together that do not clash, and if I use pads between them there are not so many things to get all threaded back onto the rod.

For slitting saws, and the like, thin cutters, I found that Office Depot sells (or did then) CD holders that are made of cardboard, to fit one CD. An envelope type deal, open at the top. Anything up to about 1/8" wide I put in those, and labeled them, putting them in order of width, arbor size, and diameter. That made them easy

[Doc Nickel]

Does he have an fixture for unloading the cutters.

-Yes, it's called "my hand". That's why the rods are so short- not only to help resist bending from the weight, but also that's an easy handful without being too heavy. The trick is to simply pick up the entire rod, set it on a folded shop towel on a nearby surface (the big Exacto lathe is directly opposite) carefully slide off the extras 'til you can get to the one you want, slide them back on, put the rod back in place.

It's easy, and a leather glove prevents cuts.

As JT notes, I don't like them clinking together either. I try to be careful, but some knocking about is inevitable. What I've been planning to do (in my spare time ) is make a punch of some sort, that will cut a 'ring' from moderately thick card stock. Something I can put in maybe an arbor press or whatever, and just stamp out a pile of discs that can be inserted between the cutters.

I need several hundred, so I'm not going to cut them by hand, though I did think about sending them through my laser- though I could see putting way too many hours on the laser for that.

I hope you don't have any earthquakes in your area.

-Hello? Ring of Fire? Alaska gets something like two-thirds of all North American earthquakes.

In the last five or six years, I've sat through no fewer than three 7-plus earthquakes. The worst damage so far? Some of the ball-bearing drawers on my Lista-style tool cabinet rolled open.

Now, an 8.0 or god forbid, another 9.0, and yeah, my machines are going to be toppling about like bowling pins.

The wall rack design takes up a lot less space than a cabinet.

-Yep. That's why I went this route- this is pretty much the absolute most compact and space-saving storage method I could think of. It uses unused space (a wall) rather than valuable drawer space, it keeps them close to the machine itself, and packs them pretty much as tightly as possible together. I have a lot of machines packed close together- I don't have much room to spare.

Nice rack! I wonder what it weighs?

-You're not supposed to ask a lady that.

(I figure it's all pushing 300 lb. for the cutters, and probably close to 100 for the tool holders and arbors.)

Factory x axis screw?

-It's one of the rare "toolroom" models, with factory leadscrews AND zero-settable micrometer dial handwheels on both axis. It also has the wider three-slot toolroom table, though the outer two slots are smaller, meaning you have to keep two different sizes of T-nuts around to use it.

And yes, while I'm bragging, I have a factory vertical head for it complete with the drive adapter. (Which by itself cost me something like $250.) I suspect I won't use it much- I have two other vertical mills- but it may be handy at times for fancy cuts, as rotating the Nichols vertical head is easier than rotating one of the turret mills' heads.

Doc.

[DrMike]

This would be a great post for the Shop Made Tools thread.

[reggie_obe]

This would be a great post for the Shop Made Tools thread.

Nope, but good material for a book of workshop organizers and ideas.

[Doc Nickel]

This would be a great post for the Shop Made Tools thread.

-That thread is far too bloated and outdated as it is. I prefer posting out in the open where more people can see it, and it can be found a lot easier later, as needed.

Doc.

[The Metal Butcher]

-Hello? Ring of Fire? Alaska gets something like two-thirds of all North American earthquakes.

In the last five or six years, I've sat through no fewer than three 7-plus earthquakes. The worst damage so far? Some of the ball-bearing drawers on my Lista-style tool cabinet rolled open.

Now, an 8.0 or god forbid, another 9.0, and yeah, my machines are going to be toppling about like bowling pins.

I was being somewhat facetious. I'm sure it crossed your mind, getting a lot more of them than I do. 3.0 is about as big as they get here. *Knock on wood*

[SVS]

After seeing Doc’s arbor rack I snapped a few pics of my version. Galvanized liner makes pictures an adventure......🙄

Two slots on left are 40 taper sized, the rest fit 50 taper. Should have made it 50% wider with a few wide spaced slots to hold oversized tools, but has worked well overall.

Material is 2” x 1/4” flat iron and 14 gage sheet with bending/brake work done on my press, and then mig welded.