Shop Made Tools

[_Paul_]

@Brian I normally use an Aloris clone toolpost/toolholders and as ezeduzit rightly points out the overhang is a problem, the Boxford is about the same as an SB9 for rigidity and when parting from the front it does dig in sometimes to the extent it will deflect the toolholder down badly enough to trash the tip and/or blade.

Baz is right The tendency for the rear parting toolpost is to lift ever so slightly away from the work, conversely my front parting tool can dig into the work, the carriage wont lift far on the Boxford as there's a substantial retainer holding it down.

Parting from the front was/is a bit of a lottery and had to be fed by hand, parting from the rear I can use the power feed on almost everything even on tool steel.

@plunger it's left in position most of the time unless something big needs to be turned, and it certainly does chatter much less, the chips fall out nicely so there is little or no swarf bunching up in the parting groove. It's quite easy to remove & refit as it has one long tee nut making it easy to (re)locate in the cross slide slot.

Paul

[dian]

did you make the blade square?

also, look at the post as a bird pecking.

[The Artful Bodger]

My version of a mill tram device....



Lower quill until the bar contacts the mill table, set index mark on dial gauge, lift quill until indicator is clear of the table, rotate 90 degrees, lower quill to contact the table again and read the gauge.

John

[MattiJ]

My version of a mill tram device....

Lower quill until the bar contacts the mill table, set index mark on dial gauge, lift quill until indicator is clear of the table, rotate 90 degrees, lower quill to contact the table again and read the gauge.

John

Why not just leave the bar off from table and not fiddle with the quill?

[The Artful Bodger]

Why not just leave the bar off from table and not fiddle with the quill?

I need some means to swing to the new position without having the dial gauge bumping over the t-nut spaces.

[MattiJ]

I need some means to swing to the new position without having the dial gauge bumping over the t-nut spaces.

I just lift the dial gauge plunger from the topside knob...

[tinkertoy41]

The toolmaker I started with has a much easier method!
Use a 1-2-3 block, move the indicator to one of the four quadrants and then slide the 1-2-3 block under the indicator.
Make sure the indicator needle is at an angle to reduce chance of disturbing.
Been using this method for 50 years and it has never let me down.
Just make sure table and 1-2-3 block are CLEAN!
Any time you move the spindle you stand a chance of error.

[The Artful Bodger]

Thats cool but this is the way I do it.

[Preso]

Here is a shop made Rivnut (Nutsert) setting tool that I made from some scraps of hydraulic ram shaft, some mild steel for the short handle, some high tensile metric bolts and some cheap thrust bearings. I do not claim any originality in the design but it works for me and it was way cheaper than a commercially made version.
Regards,
Preso

[Preso]

Here is another tool that I had to build to go with my Rivnut setting tool. It is used to dismantle the thrust face from the body of the tool so that different sized threaded spindles can be swapped out. Once again, it is not in any way original but it was fairly simple to fabricate. The idea for using replaceable pins in the ends of the arms was one that I picked up from a photo on Google image search. The lantern chuck pattern also popped up in various forms on Google.
Regards,
Preso.

[Toolguy]

Thanks for contributing, Preso. Keep on keeping on!

[Richard T]

Preso - Your videos are always appreciated, as is your personal commentary. I have learned a lot from them.

Please do not let the negativity of others dissuade you from continuing.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[lugnut]

I was thinking on how to remark on Preso's great video and I think Richard T said it all.
Thanks to both of you.

[10KPete]

Pin spanner

I've made a few of these in different sizes. They all use cap screws as the pins with the ends of the pins turned to the needed diameter. Takes me about an hour and the cap screws are strong pins and are easy to make different sizes as needed. The arms are just hot rolled steel. Rather than bend offsets in the arms for the hinge I just milled off half the thickness at the ends. The pins for this one are 10-32 screws with the threads turned down at the end to the needed diameter. It's easy to change sizes....

Preso did a nicer job; mine are sorta rough and ready

Pete

[outlawspeeder]

Had some time this weekend in the shop. The dial is a "no name" but it is large. The alignment pin is just an old Drill bit but it keeps things right.