Lathe tooling

For me, it's the opposite as I use the DRO all the time. Reading the handwheel markings is OK but the resolution is 0.025 mm instead of 0.01 / 0.005 mm for DRO. With the handwheel, you have to count the number of turns and memorize where to stop but with DRO, you just move the tool until the reading is zero. It's far more convenient and less error prone. This is for the Y-axis.

For the X-axis, I have tried to avoid it by repeatitively measuring the distance and calculating the incremental movement of the compound side needed but finally got frustrated and switch to DRO. Happy ever after. For me it's the most-used accessory for my lathe.

Edited By Y C Lui on 16/01/2022 09:47:08

Thank you all for your replies.

JasonB, many thanks. I found that thread after posing the question.

Howard, you are absolutely right, these machines are sold by several companies under different names. Grizzly has an almost identical lathe for sale. For the face plate I have searched all over the internet and I can not find one. Even Grizzly don’t seem to stock them. If I use it or not, £72 for a face plate is not the end of the world when you are spending £3k on the lathe.

Milling a solid steel packer would be ideal but that means I have to invest in a mill! Which was not in the current plans and Domestic control might veto the purchase.

Steve,I might just do the same as you and use the machine for a bit before going on a buying spree.

Y C Lui, I like your shim solution. Always correct and nothing will get lost when changing cutters.

For my application an accuracy of 0.025mm is absolutely fine. Having said that, I have never worked with a DRO so once ai get used to it I might change my opinion. 30 years ago at college we didn’t have a DRO but time will tell.

Colin,

If you have a 4 jaw chuck, which you will find very useful, if not essential, for some jobs, (More accurate centering than a 3 jaw can provide, centering castings etc, or deliberate eccentric machining ) you can turn packing pieces, but with a rebate, to avoid musing a lot of shims

An ex Navy trainee who was with me showed me a hexagon nut that he had turned (faced ) in a lathe. Apparently the Navy do not like / use milling machines on ships.

In fact, I have used a 4 jaw to clean up the faces of R H S, as well as the ends, for a job that I was doing.

So it can be done!

Howard

Howard,

thank you, that hadn’t even crossed my mind. Yes, the lathe comes with a 4 jaw chuck so it should be possible.

My previous post, as usual contained typos.

"With" should be "Without rebate"

If you are looking for shims, and only corrugated round tins are available, the flat tins for Sardines and Herrings can be a source of shim material.

Howard

Edited By Howard Lewis on 20/01/2022 10:30:30

I bought similar and they sent the faceplate just for the asking.

I discovered that the wonderful clock spring thing over the lead screw stopped the saddle a full 4 1/2" inches shy of the end, so the face plate could not be reached. Wondered if that was why they didn't want to send it?

The clock spring is easy enough to remove and the saddle then hits the saddle stop and the clunky clutch thing that prevents you testing the Pauli exclusion principle with the feeds.

Once those were off/allowed for I could run the saddle right off the end of the rack.

A lot of my turning training was carried out on a Boxford and a plain lathe, the Boxford had a 4 way toolpost ,and work was usualy between 0ne and 200 components in brass rod and castings ,aluminium castings ,nickel silver and some steel,lathe tools were eclipse 3/8 square ,so everyone aquired a tobaco tin of brass shim of varing thick ness,and a tin of tolbits which I still have 60 plus years later.On brass and nickel with no top rake,a tool could be reground without the need to change the shim,tools needing top rake needed a thicker shim after re grinding,though if a tool was used for facing and did not need to right across to leave a pip, ie work with a centre hole,then a very slight drop in the tool did not really require a re shim.The ability to have up to four tools in use was time saving on larger batches ,though a pain in the backside to keep adjusting shims when doing one offs, i never forgot this and when I bought my Myford for home,I did not buy a four way toolpost, I had seen in the ME a Drummond type adjustable adjustable toolholder which was mounted on a short round steel post on the top slide ,I made two of these and and did all my turning for years with them and cost me nothing to make and they are a bit more rigid than a Dickson type holder. though do not have any repeatability regarding rotation.When I bought my first Colchester I it had a genuine Dickson tool post, I then added Col triumph 2000 to my workshop and promptly removed the four way toolpost and put on a spare Dickson that I aquired, I am now down to the Myford and a col master 2500, with a Dicksone and 17 toolholders and would not be without it,and since I found how useful the Dickson type toolholder is ,I bought bought a quickchange toolholder for the Myford and again that only gets removed if I have to cut tapered pipe threads and the shanks are too large for the myford Dickson holder, I dont have a taper turner on the colchester. I had for some time a Smart and Brown plain lathe and I tried the the Myford Dicksom toolpost on it ,it made turning a lot easier,as the S&B only had the simple tool clamp,though for any numbers I had the capstan turret and cut off slide,which was really rigid ideal for parting and form tools. when I started work most run of the mill lathes only had bed stops, some with a multi position stop there were no dros,so every one learnt to turn with rule ,micrometers and proper calipers with a vernier scale and we all managed ok.I did get a chance when I long left the shop floor to use a DRO on a near new Colchester student,it was ok probably saved time ,but was not impressed,it was not accurate enough for accurately turning bores to within tenths for ball bearings. An awful lot of lathe work can be carried out with a basic lathe and a set of centres,faceplate catchplate,3 & 4 jaw chucks ,fixed and travelling steadies ,tailstock chuck,cutting tools then after that i would go for a Dickson toolholder plus a range of measuring tools and good set of twist drills, after that its a case of how much spare cash there is available. And buy a lathe with a decent sized bore up the spindle, Myfords biggest fault.

I have an old Warco version of the Craftsman. I am tempted by a QCTP, I am sure that good quality ones have repeatable positioning. But for a smaller lathe, I have two QCTP of different types, they are terrible. The height is never repeatable and this has made me cautious about buying one for the Warco.

I have a set of indexed lathe tools which all have the same height so I only need one set of packing and swapping tools is easy. The only time I had a problem was when I tried super cheap inserts which had a different thickness.

I leave my 4 way tool post setup with a parting tool on one side and use the other for the indexed tool. I really like the T type parting tool with chip breaker groove. Not so easy to find, but very easy to use. Look on Chronos or Excentiric Eng.

An earlier post mentioned milling each tool holder. It sounds like a good idea and I will try it out. I have a mill, but as you don't, you could always mill them in the lathe. With a little thought, you could probably do it without a vertical slide too.

I don't have any, but I have thought tangential tools could be a good idea for easy swapping while keeping the height.

A side note: My lathe has an issue with the gap bed and rack. The alignment between the rack on the bed and gap piece is not good. There is a gap between the two racks that causes the saddle to jump forward about 0.5mm. This causes a mark when doing a power feed, and makes saddle position adjustment difficult.

Adrian

The Aloris based Chinese QCTP's seem to come in 2 flavours, piston and wedge. Sketch the piston mechanism on a fag packet, ask yourself what holds it in alignment, try not to laugh.

After purchasing a wedge type replacement I thought I might just trim the piston tool holders out to a 30 degree dovetail to see if they were useable.

They were so far off 30 degrees that by the time I got the angle it was all too wide.

However, they still had a use. If I put one of them on the wedge post, push it forwards against a DTI and measure the stroke as I close the lock lever, I find a meagre 0.7mm full travel and favorite if goes tight around the 0.2mm mark. They are a bit fussy.

Fortunately easy to make, and if you ponder the design you will probably want extra height unless it is a boring bar or a parting tool. If you are cleverer than me (quite likely) you could tell me what to do. I haven't figured out the numbering system so I can't buy fancy new tool holders to fit my post

Edited By Robin on 20/01/2022 14:47:54

I have a smaller Chester lathe, a DB8. But may be some details are the same. So check if under the 4-way toolpost is a boss (a kind of ring around the bolt which holds the toolpost down). When you look for a quick change toolpost you need to either find one which fits exactly to your machine or you need to remove the boss - which may lead to less stability of your toolpost.

In any case it is worth changing to a quick chaning one, I wouldn't like to go back to a single or 4-way toolpost. Once a tool is set up it you can forget fiddling around with shims. In the past I was thinking twice before a toolchange, now it is done in seconds.

Faceplate: you need to find one with the same interface as your chucks, I am sure there are many. I use a Warco one.

Thank you all for your replies.

On my working block at the moment so will get back to you tomorrow.

Have a good Sunday!

The fitting for the Backplate, or chucks is likely to be 2.25 inch x 8 tpi Whit form.

To fit ER25 and ER32 collet chucks to the lathe, I had to fabricate and screwcut backpltes to fit my BL12 -24 which is Craftsman lookalike. Indeed it was a Chester website that told me what the thread was!

The chucks, and Faceplate are retained by dogs which hook behind the flange and are held by Capscrews into the Backplate. They take a 6 mm Allen key.

Howard

Thank you everybody for your thoughts.

Having had some time to think it all over and take your opinions into account I have decided to leave the QCTP for now. I will get a set of basic tools and it is easy to expand from there onwards instead of buying a whole range of tools I may never use.

The below tools is what I had in mind:

Carbide brazed lathe tools (12mm)

https://www.warco.co.uk/carbide-brazed-lathe-tools/193-11-piece-tct-turning-tool-sets.html#/286-size-12mm

Lathe tapping attachment and chuck. (3MT)
https://www.warco.co.uk/threading-tools/303089-lathe-tapping-attachment-tailstock-tool.html#/241-type-3mt

And of course the face plate.

A wide ranging selection of measuring tools is already in my possession.