Lathe tool holder

Boufht myself a new lathe quick change tool post and decided to have a go at making some holders. So 30mm thick plate, 240mm long 85mm wide, on the mill surfaced up. Dovetail slot roughed out to depth and started cutting the dovetails. Anyway don't know how I managed it but i`ve cut the dovetail slot 0.5mm too wide. So I really don't want to have to scrap the plate so I could weld up one side and recut it, probably killing the cutter in the process or I could make a shim and pin it to the top of the holder to keep it in place. Any other options to save the bar?

Instead of a pin to secure the shim, could you use Loctite instead ?

Another option is to braze or silver solder to build up the surface. Then re-machine to size. Not so severe on your cutter.

Paul.

Edited By Paul Lousick on 23/08/2019 23:25:31

If it is an Aloris clone it would be faoirly tolerant of dovetail width. Try it on the toolpost before doing anything else.

I have some oddbaall toolholders with a dovetail slightly too large for the toolpost. I use a shimcto make them work.

Thanks guys. It is an aloris type and it does grip the blank tool holder but its right at its limit. I will try out a shim with some Loctite and see how it goes. I`ll need to be more careful with the next batch.

If there are many holders and only one toolpost, could you shim the toolpost itself?

This is the first batch. I will get 5 or 6 from the current bit of bar but I'm planning on making more and also getting the next ones right.

I made a batch of a dozen holders, one was a tad too deep so I glued a shim to the bottom of the dovetail (not the angled side) and it's still going strong.

Neil

I did exactly the same thing with some toolholders. The problem was cured with a steel shim and JB Weld. There were two problems, P1,clamping the shim in place, required a small bit of mylar as a release agent, to ensure that everything wasn't stuck together forever, and P2 leaving the toolpost and toolholder clamped up for 24 hours whilst the epoxy cured.

Best of luck,

cheers

Bill

You could hold the shims with a couple of 2mm countersunk screws, if you are up to tapping small holes.