Boring head

HI,

I'm about to embark on a long term project building a 4" scale Little Samson traction engine. I have a few of the castings and will be buying more shortly. The rear wheels are too big for my lathe so I am having those machined out of house, as I will with anything that is too large for my equipment.

I have a Warco VMC mill and looking to buy a boring head for it. It has an R8 taper.

I was looking at the Chinese boring head available through Chronos, Amadeal, RDG amongst other suppliers.

What size boring head should I buy? There seems to be two common sizes, 50mm & 75mm. Would it be better for me to buy both sizes or neither and buy something different?

On the basis that a 50mm head did all I needed on my 2" Fowler and I would say a 75mm head would be the most useful on your LS build. It will still do small dia holes but you won't be over extending the dovetails on larger items. Some bore can be done using a home made between ctrs boring bar in the lathe

If you are not already a member of Traction Talk Forum I would suggest joining as there are quite a few build threads on the various size Little Samsons and Edward George who supplies the castings is a member and can help with any queries.

Also worth trying to get hold of a copy of his book "Model Traction Engine Design & Construction" which is the best book on the subject and many of the illustrations are of LS models being made.

Go for the larger one, you are unlikely to ever buy another. The cutters are not much cop, but they can be improved somewhat by touching them up with a diamond hone. I have turned the centre part of each cutter shank a few thou down so the burr left by the securing screws does not make them difficult to remove from the head. As the head will be out of balance, use a fairly slow speed.

 Never run one of these in reverse,it will unscrew from the arbor.

Edited By old mart on 23/10/2019 19:49:17

Many thanks for the info