Article Suggestion "White Elephant & Why"

I was given a "universal sharpening jig".

About 10" high in a wooden box it has lovely well-made graduated swivels in 3 axes and holder to take lathe tools up to about 3/4" shank.

Presumably it goes on the bed of a grinder so you can set all sorts of compound angles.

One day I will figure out something to make using the bits.

My workshop has an Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant*.

Stub.

*Google it

Read the post again, it says three tools cover most situations, not everything.

For general turning I use insert tooling. So a CCMT holder, CCMT boring bar and parting tool covers most situations. Of course I can change insert radius and type without needing to change the tool. The few percent that aren't covered by the three basic tools are mostly thread cutting and a few HSS tools for accurate grooves or special threads. I don't generally use form tools as I have a hydraulic copy unit to make fancy shapes.

Andrew

If I had to do that to make a batch of nuts I'd have gone nuts, and taken up knitting a long time ago.

I don't recall the change of length ever being much of an issue. I tend to use a single tool to do the same operation on each part and then move onto the next, if possible. I don't have a DRO on my lathe, it's just not sufficiently useful to me. On the mill yes, the best single item I've ever bought, but on the lathe no. I suspect the DRO scales would rather be in the way on the lathe, whereas on the mill they don't limit anything.

One thing I like about my particular toolpost is that it has an index plate underneath, every 9° I think. So I can swivel the toolpost between tools, and for adding non-critical chamfers, and be assured that I can reset back to the original position within a thou or two.

Andrew

There are quite a few things I don't use too often but they are still very nice to have when you need them...boring head and my 'adjustable' angle plate come to mind...

However, I think I will have to nominate my Formit 3-in-1 tool.

I purchased it because I mainly needed the rollers - which I have actually used on a few occasions. However the guillotine is pretty useless (although I hear they can be improved) and I haven't needed the V 'bender' for my modelling - a 'folder' is much more useable. The thing is also rather heavy for me to move around these days and takes up quite a bit of bench space.

So, on reflection, I think I should have purchased just a good set of rollers and not been tempted by the other functionality - which is of dubious usefulness in my case.

Regards,

IanT

Neil just reminded my I have one of those drill sharpening fixtures for use on a bench grinders still brand new in its box sitting in the drawer under my grinder unused. Got it at a garage sale with the grinder and thought it would be right handy. But every time I need a drill sharpened I am in too much of a hurry to mess about with the jig and set it all up. One day...

And after spending several years laboriously making my fabricated version of GHT's Versatile Dividing Head, including the index plates and secondary "micro adjustment" mechanism that lets you index to within one thousandth of a degree, I am yet to use the indexing mechanism for anything other than making its own index plates and drilling the 814 holes therein. Every other job so far has been using the 60-tooth gear and a plunger for direct indexing. One day I'll need to make that 127 tooth gear... Meanwhile, the VDH spends most of its life on my dining table as a piece of art.

I picked up an 8" Abwood or J&S style milling vice from work that had been one of four that occasionally got used on a little Lumsden grinder. I thought it might be handy on the 48"x10" Beaver milling machine.

Note to the wise:- an 8" milling vice will NOT fit on a Bridgeport/Beaver sized milling machine! Since then, I picked up a couple of 6" Kurt copies and they are perfectly matched to the mill, but the big one keeps sitting there and taking up floor space.

Tailstock turrets!

Made the ME one for my V10P in the '70s but only used it a couple of times as tools got in the way on that short bed.

Bought one for the BH600G and found it only marginally more useful, though haven't used it the last year or so.

Boxford shaper, most definitely NOT a white elephant, but not being used as often as I expected and hoped for.

Geoff - No heating as 1998 Keston 40 only igniting occasionally.

Queen Elizabeth was following a long tradition of imposing herself on her Lords. The monarch did not have a reliable income, and the only way to feed the entourage was to park it on someone whose power derived from the monarch.

Similar schemes exist today ...

Tim

Make that two. I bought mine ready built from an obviously accomplished engineer (one of the nicest pieces of "home made" workmanship I've ever seen). It came with the book too. The VDH and micro attachment with it's tailstock will get used but I also got the Myford Headstock dividing attachment by the same author and built by the same gentleman that will ultimately get fitted to the lathe but not until a job warrants it. Meanwhile, speed and ease usually wins the day with a gear mounted on the rear of the spindle and a plunger.

Well, I for one use my GHT dividing head regularly. It fits on the mill easily because I went to the trouble of making the raising blocks which are keyed into the T slots. It's a fixed distance fron the rear vertical face of the table so with the DRO and a wobbler can be mounted and referenced in a couple of minutes. It takes a similar amount of time to mount on the lathe boring table. The indexing plates and micro adjust are common to my headstock dividing arrangement and the Myford Nose adapter allows mounting of all my chucks or ER collet adaptors.

regards Martin

Well this thread has proved to be quite enlightening to me, every time I am doing frequent changes of tooling in the tailstock for example when making fittings, I curse the fact that I have never made the tailstock turret kit that is sitting under the bench. Reading this thread makes me feel much better now knowing other people's experiences.

Another thing that I have always hankered after is one of the 3 in 1 sheet metal machines, I now know that I don't need one of those either! In fact the longer this thread continues may mean that I never have to buy anything for the workshop ever again.

Phil

My god ! ..... taken out of context ......

At least, for once, I seem to be in plenty of good company with my Tailstock Turret. Fitted it once, realised that the Die Holder was going to fall off every time, and it hasn't seen the light of day since. Should have been ideal for speeding up drilling and tapping.

Definitely qualifies me for the Tombstone engraving of "Seemed a Good Idea at the Time"

QCTP is in the same class, currently, having no space to store spare toolholders.

IF I had a 3D printer, am sure that once programming it had been mastered, (Very difficult in my case) it would be an invaluable bit of kit. Should save all manner of complicated machining, fabrication and welding, subject to strength of the material used.

Howard

A 3D printer could solve your QCTP problem...

.... or put up a shelf.

And so does a bit of junior carpentry

Michael W

I have about 20minutes and less than a fiver in this:

It's several short pieces of 25x1mm steel strap bent and welded to a longer piece. No measurements were made when making this as each piece was marked out and bent to match the first one which looked about right. They were spaced apart by using the same piece. The rack is bolted to a cupboard door next to the lathe. I must make another, as I now have more holders.

White elephant...

My 50g per shot max injection moulding machine. Got from the skip at work. It works, but the moq for plastic granules is around a tonne, so quite a bit more than I need at home. I have about 500g left, and after that the thing will be useless.

The Boxford shaper is used, just not often, and I use it so rarely that I tend to forget something and the first couple of hours work from it tends to be 'close, but not close enough' and thereby scrap.

Regards

Richard.

.

If you are serious, Richard; please let me have some details of the machine

... I may be interested in re-homing your little elephantette.

MichaelG.