Turret Lathe Question Thread

[Larry Swearingen]

Hello Tom S,
If you haven't already discovered NS and Bronze can be very "Grabby" with normal cutting angle drills .
I was making a female ferrule for a Spey Rod, about #26 or 28 IIRC, and had drilled a pilot hole.
I went to enlarge the hole with the final drill size and the NS bar just grabbed the drill and jerked the
Tailstock handle out of my hand. I ended up trashing that piece and almost the drill. Couldn't get the drill
out without turning away all of the NS. So I ground a very small flat on the cutting edges of the drills
that I used. That's an old trick for drilling brass etc. that works.
You may not have that problem with "Trout sized" ferrules , #8-17.
Larry S
Fort Wayne, IN

[Illinoyance]

The item identified as a floating reamer holder might be a releasing tap holder.

[Paul Alciatore]

But? But? But?

Isn't "made from billet" better?

Not really a high production item, bamboo fly rod ferrules. I'm not sure you'd see anyone going through the trouble of buying a centerless grinder. I imagine most manufactures would have run small batches with a turret in years past and most likely run CNC equipment these days. Back when a manufacturer used to make all the components and hardware themselves (and there was a larger market for bamboo rods) the best builders would actually make ferrules by deep-drawing nickel silver sheet or tubing (depending on if it was a male or female ferrule). That takes some specialized dies & tooling that hobbyists are just not willing to spend the money on, and because of that the vast majority of ferrules are machined these days. The unfortunate thing about that is that the drawn ferrules became work-hardened and picked up some strength and wear-resistance in the process, which is lost on the machined ferrules.

[Tom S]

But? But? But?

Isn't "made from billet" better?

Maybe if it was going to be anodized red and bolted onto someone's mall-crawling pickup that hasn't seen a dirt road for its entire life. Adds 50hp, just like the Browning, RealTree, or Rough Country sticker on the rear window.

[Tom S]

Happened upon a turret that's a much better fit for my machine than the Derbyshire model I had previously purchased. Hardinge Model B, from a 7" split bed Cataract. Hardinge made the Cataract in two swings, 7" and 9" - the 9" was very much more popular, but is to tall for the swing of my machine and it's hard to adapt those components. I never figured I'd see a 7" turret, but one popped up semi-local, so I was able to take a drive and save some shipping as well.





Next up is an adapter plate, I measured up things for that today and hope to work on it in the near future.

[Bob La Londe]

I have a little tailstock mounted manual turret I use for making internally threaded knobs. It also uses 5/8 tooling. My quick easy fix was to buy a batch of 5/8 shank ER collet chucks and cut them down to a good length to go in the turret. Works pretty well, and I can fit any size tool I have a collet for.