What is the most useful workshop tool that you have made?

Mine is a Lever Locking Topslide. This is the latest version on a Chipmaster lathe. It is so useful to be able to position and angle the topslide anywhere on the cross slide and instantly lock it in position. It also has a screwcutting retract and a slide locking lever below the feed dial.

Alan

The most useful I ever made was a mandrel handle for my Myford Super 7. I used the design from Ian Bradley's Myford Series 7 Manual. However when I replaced the lathe by a big bore Myford I gave it to a friend since the new lathe came with a Myford mandrel handle. This is not nearly as good as the one I made since the handle crank length is not adjustable.

Now the most useful tool is an alignment microscope that I made over 12 years ago. Shamefully I cannot find any details about it but I think the design came from the ME or MEW. The original design used a mirror which I replaced with a prism. I do remember that the optics were very expensive.

JA

ME, DAG Brown design.

I have to bend the tittle and little. I did start making one of these when I bought my first miller but changed lathe and it came with this. It's easily the home made tool that gets the most use by a large margin.

John

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If that's the Centering scope you are referring to, do you have the articles/details?

John, that's a nice knurling tool. I've recently repaired (again!) my piece of Chinese spaghetti known as a straddle knurling tool, and I always swear that I'll make a decent one. Maybe integrate your RH plate and the QCT holder into one piece...

The only problem with that one is the knurls it's based on. It would be best to pick a size of good quality HSS knurls that can be bought easily with different patterns and degrees of coarseness. On the other hand when I have used a coarser diamond pattern I have often found it to be too sharp to hold comfortably.

The owner of the lathe made 2. Or maybe the owner before him made it. The other one is a different design. I'll post a shot shortly. The arms need to be longer on it. So far it's done what I want when needed.

John

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I have elongated the slots that the clamp passes through on this one but should make new arms - when I need too. The pivots on the clamp need to be larger too allowing more angular movement leaving more space for the nut or handle as per the other one.

They aren't difficult to make really. The fiddly parts are the various screws - home made slotted heads. It might be possible to modify bought high tensile ones. They only need to be threaded for a short length directly under the head. Grub screws would keep the width of the heads down.

You can see that the last thing I used them on was brass. They are ok on al and fc stainless too but that one takes a lot of pressure.

My fc stainless generally seems to be a ferritic grade. I just ask for free cutting and one lot wasn't so I'd guess that's why.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 18/11/2015 12:59:08

Edited By John W1 on 18/11/2015 13:03:25

Edited By John W1 on 18/11/2015 13:05:21

Graeme W

I have found some details - "Optical Alignment for Machine Tools" by D A G Brown & R O Stephens, Model Engineer, 24 September & 22 October 1999.

I note that Hemingway Kits do a Centering Micrscope that could be to the same design.

JA

Sort of a workshop tool !!. Definitely the most useful thing Ive ever made, a folding beam woodsplitter, or one of em. I must have split many tons with the one at the back. Only about 7 ton splitting pressure, but gets through most things.

Roger Head (and others),

I did exactly that when I made my version of the pincer style knurling tool based on a design by Graham Meek. That is, I incorporated the tool into the QCTP mounting as partially seen in the photo below. It makes the tool more rigid and makes for a better finish in my experience.

In this picture, the tool isn't quite finished, but you get the general idea.

The picture below better illustrates the body style.

John

Edited By John Hinkley on 18/11/2015 21:47:45

John H, that's certainly an interesting design. My experience has been that the stability of the arm hinge points is important, especially for large diameter knurling (40 - 50mm), hence my liking of the original photo shown by John. Putting the pivot points at the rear of the tool allows the arms to be guided by the side plates (thereby minimizing the forces on the pivots), and also allows a larger range of diameters without extreme angle changes.

It will be interesting to hear your experience when you have completed your tool.

+1 for the original photo.

The 2nd one is pretty rigid Roger. The arms and wheels are thicket than the other on, arms circa 3/4" across but I agree that the first design is fundamentally better. The arms on that one are 1/2" across.

The other problem with the 2nd one is that the max dia doesn't tie in well with the distance from the centre of the knurls to the point where the clamp screw would rub on the work. The slots in the arm are too short too but I lengthened those as much as I dare.

A big gain with this style is that it's possible to apply a lot of pressure without the work bending and compared with the ones that are just pushed in from the side they seem to make the job easier.

John

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That's a nice device Alan, looks well made - worth a write up or magazine article?

* Danny M *

Hi Danny,

In MEW mags 119, 120 & 121, in 2005. I described it in great detail with variations for various lathes including Myfords. In the article I tried hard to describe the idea to the MEW world, and even had subsequent discussions with Mr Moore the Myford boss then, to no avail. The one in the photo is a newer version incorporating some other ideas, notably an oval gib, notice the absence of gib screws on the sides. This works very well and enables the slide to be locked along the full length if desired, virtually turning it into a form of Gibraltar toolpost. The flexibility enabled by being able to move, rotate and lock the topslide anywhere and easily remove the topslide from the cross slide cannot be overated. It really enhances the lathe operation.

Alan

Perhaps not the most useful, but invaluable on the several occasions I've needed it.

It's an adjustable chuck spider for the lathe, so I can hold very very short parts.

Hi Alan that is a very interesting tool post you have made. Would you show and describe it in a bit more detail please?
In fact the tool post and top slide combination would make for a very interesting construction/functionality thread all of it's own - particularly for those of us who don't have the relevant MEW issues.

Cheers
Steve

Hi SteveM,

I have also added a detailed description in MEW 210,218 & 219 which also used a Lever locking topslide on the Stepperhead lathe. You may not also have these copies. I tried to copy a PDF file but could not work out how to do it.

If you look at my album you may see some more photos in the Myford and Chipmaster albums.

The toolpost is my version of the MLA toolpost you may be able to Google that.

Alan

Peter that Spider looks just what I need, I'm going to have to make one of those-brilliant

Mick

Thanks Alan.
In case anyone else is interested I found a good build thread for the MLA toolpost here:

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/south-bend-lathes/machining-mla-23-toolpost-174336/

Edited By SteveM on 19/11/2015 14:07:54