Shop Made Tools

[bborr01]

Paul,

The blue bath looks excellent on your tool holders. What is your setup?

Thanks,
Brian

[_Paul_]

Thanks Brian,

It's a kit from Frosts Restorers in the UK Frost Metal Blacking Kit the setup is as this photo:

Degreaser (10 mins) - first water bucket - Dry off - Blacking Solution (Max 5 mins) - second water bucket - Dry off - Dewatering oil (10 mins)



I "modified" Frosts instructions a little to my liking:



I have only used this a couple of times but my observations so far are:

Temperature seems critical it really does work better at the recommended 20 degrees Celsius, below this temp the blacking seems patchy/thin.

1/ When degreasing I used a Scotchbrite pad on the component whilst in the solution scrubbing the entire outside lightly and then leaving for the recommended 10 minutes.

2/ When picking components out of the degreaser dont touch your part with your hands even rubber gloves seem to leave marks in the finished item, I fished mine out of the degreaser with a plastic knitting needle poked into one of the holes and swished it around in the clean water bucket dedicated for that solution, dried it completely removing all the water using an airline.

3/ Into the blacking solution (Selenium Compound) using the same knitting needle, set the timer for 4 minutes 30 seconds, with my components having flat sides I found it needed all surfaces exposed to the solution for it to give full coverage, simply propping it up at a slight angle with the same plastic knitting needle did the trick.
Don't leave in the blacking solution more than 5 minutes* long it makes the solution go dirty real quick and leaves sort of smutty marks on your parts.
*(Time seems to vary by component shape and size and material type do a test component and judge the timing for your particular item).

4/ With a second clean plastic knitting needle remove from the blacking solution, at this point the component is permanently blacked and handling it with rubber gloves didn't seem to harm it in fact some of my components had "smutty" marks where I can only assume too much "black" had been deposited which I wiped of with my gloved fingers when rinsing in the second (dedicated) bucket of clean water, again completely dried with an airline.

5/ Using the same knitting needle then into the dewatering oil for a minimum of 10 minutes fished out shake the excess fluid back into the tub and then left to dry naturally.

Try to Keep whatever you use to put the parts in an out of the solutions either dedicated to that liquid of as clean as possible, contamination means it wont last as long or be as effective.

Paul

[ezduzit]

Thanks Paul.

[_Paul_]

More AXA Toolholders.... IV

Made some brass thumbwheels/adjuster nuts to finish off.





All done





Paul

[sasquatch]

Nice work Paul!!

[chip's]

Yes excellent! I'm sure the workman ship is better than you could buy in a lot cases.

[ezduzit]

Very professional looking.

[thaiguzzi]

Luvley Jubley as usual Paul...
Ran out of steel material, recently did another 5 holders in ally, no probs so far, but used in "light duty" enviroments, ball brg pusher, dti holder, very small boring tools, etc.
Mike.

[_Paul_]

Thanks guys

Mike your ally toolholders sound good, I wonder if anodising would help improve durability?

Paul

[thaiguzzi]

I doubt it Paul. I reckon they are plenty strong enough, but the material just has to be taken care of a bit more, ie bruises and burrs etc on the mating faces.

[BCRider]

Thanks guys

Mike your ally toolholders sound good, I wonder if anodising would help improve durability?

Paul

Anodizing will resist abrasion marks. But anything strong enough to actually leave a dent in the aluminium will just stretch the anodizing along for the ride.

The idea of some alloy holders for things like dial indicators, smaller form cutters supported by a steel shim and that ball bearing alignment tool is a lovely idea. But for any of the heavy use holders steel is still King.....

[Jim2]

I bought a Phase II QCTP a couple years back, so have been slowly adding to my collection of toolholders for it. Threading smaller stock was a challenge with the holders that came in the set because there just wasn't adequate clearance to get around the tailstock. So, I checked out what was available, found the #13 holder, and made one of those up.




That's it there, second from the left, next to the parting tool. Oh, it's nice and all, but saw all of these retractable threading tools other folks were making and added one of those to the list. But, decided to design my own which is kind of a hybrid of a couple of different designs. My biggest influence is from Charles Dolan, who posted his creation on PM. Although there are similar designs elsewhere. I did add a spring to supply a bit of tension. Here's what I came up with




Here's the internal mechanism




And, kind of an "exploded" view with most of the parts. The lever wasn't made yet when this picture was taken.




The lever activates the tool when it is drawn backward, which is opposite to pretty much all other retractable threading tools that I've seen. I wanted it that way because I had some concern that pushing the compound forward might cause backlash to vary the cut taken. That probably would never happen as the cross-slide, compound, QCTP, tool-holder, etc. have considerable weight, and activating the retractable tool-holder just doesn't require that much force. But, it works well in any case.

Jim

[BCRider]

That's a superb bit of design work and machining on that holder Jim2. Really nicely done.

[Jim2]

Thanks, BCR. I am pretty happy with how it came out.

Jim

[sasquatch]

Agree, very nice!