How Do They DO This?

[J Tiers]

A "box tool" similar to those commonly used on turret lathes. Holds the work and the tool in a constant relationship, so the turning is consistent.

It's like the best follow rest you ever saw, set up to "follow before", instead of after. That's a recognized technique, which has been described on this forum, although not for maybe a dozen years or so.

[DR]

When I said relatively long to diameter I meant holding diameters to something like +/-.0002". And just for fun make the pat with a taper.

In my experience, for non-tapered work a box tool won't do it to that size. .

[Rich Carlstedt]

A box tool is superb for the work as Jerry said,
but my submitted article is not a box tool and the design has never been seen or published that I am aware of after being in shops for well over 60 years .
( shades of patent application thread 😀 )
Also unlike a Swiss machine it can turn non symmetrical cross-section raw material and it does not cost 40 K $$ +

Rich

[J Tiers]

Well then, we'll see it in a year or two.

[Dan_the_Chemist]

https://www.esslinger.com/tap-and-die-watchmakers-mini-set-of-14/

This handy tap and die set comes with fourteen different taps and a large screw plate that allow you to thread wire, re-thread stripped threads on screws, and even thread cases. Perfect for working on small pieces that jewelers and watchmakers commonly run into. Now you can repair stripped and damaged threads that were unrepairable before. Sizes include .7, .8, .9, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9 and 2.0mm for both tap and dies.

[John Buffum]

In 1950, Robert Heinlein wrote a short story, "Waldo". It was so influential, that devices that do that are called Waldos today. I pictured miniature machines, and machinists using Waldos to service them. By miniature, I was thinking golf ball size lathes and mills. Of course, you'd have a "chicken-egg" situation, there. OK, how are those machines made and calibrated?

(Imagine a Kearney and Trekker 3H the size of a golf ball.)

To picture a large, heavy machine doing this makes sense, but you'd have to employ machinists who were way BEYOND OCD.

Back in my IT days, in the early days of MS-DOS, when hard drives FIRST CAME OUT to the public, I read an article in PC Magazine about the hard drives and their parts. One line stated that a tiny speck of dust on the platter would be, to the reading head, like a suitcase size rock on the highway, for a car.

These machines must demand an insane level of clean working to stay in spec. That's why the OCD remark.

[EddyCurr]

Stan Stocker, please write more often. Your post to this thread is a meaty, satisfying contribution to my knowledge about micro fastener production.

Micro fasteners are a subject that, like OP John Buffham, I have also marveled about - most recently when I performed CMOS Battery replacement surgery in the bowels of several orphaned, but useful notebooks & laptops. While M2 Phillips flat heads were perhaps the smallest encountered on that project, they were still sufficiently tiny to instill a sense of wonderment about how truely tiny fasteners are made.

Your "When the V was in the right place ..." sentence is a favorite.

Perhaps "... polished with a hardware dowel ..." was intended to be "polished with a hardwood dowel" ?

[Stan Stocker]

Stan Stocker, please write more often. Your post to this thread is a meaty, satisfying contribution to my knowledge about micro fastener production.

Micro fasteners are a subject that, like OP John Buffham, I have also marveled about - most recently when I performed CMOS Battery replacement surgery in the bowels of several orphaned, but useful notebooks & laptops. While M2 Phillips flat heads were perhaps the smallest encountered on that project, they were still sufficiently tiny to instill a sense of wonderment about how truely tiny fasteners are made.

Your "When the V was in the right place ..." sentence is a favorite.

Perhaps "... polished with a hardware dowel ..." was intended to be "polished with a hardwood dowel" ?

Thanks for the kind words, and indeed I should have either written hardwood dowel or at least caught the spell checker correcting a fat finger job to something other than intended!

Stay healthy. Keep laughing.

[old mart]

The 6mm solid carbide boring tool made by Garant that I have has a 1.8mm Torx screw holding the insert on, that's plenty small enough for me in my old age.