Martin Cleeve Swing Clear Retracting Toolholder

Can anyone steer me in the right direction where i can find details and drawings for Martin Cleeve's Swing Clear Retracting Toolholder. There are plenty of pictures of this but I cannot find where it was published. I have the Model Engineer magazine issues where he describes his original non-retracting version.

Regards All,

Wychwar

I think it's in his little book "Screwcutting in the lathe". I'll check next time I'm in the workshop.

Try here, Roger ... I re-posted the link earlier today

**LINK**

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=168193&p=2

MichaelG.

Roger,

Hemingway do kits and drawings for the retracting toolholder and it’s definitely in ‘Screwcutting In The Lathe’

Bert

Edited By herbert punter on 03/10/2020 21:15:54

That’s the Geo. H. Thomas one isn’t it, Bert ?

MichaelG.

This is another old post of yours linking to his patent:

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=139985

Yep.

Geo. H. Thomas did the Retracting Toolholder.

Martin Cleeve did the Swing Clear one.

Tubal Cain did a stop system for Myfords, probably adaptable to others, that limited retraction via the cross slide handle giving essentially the same result.

SouthBends, and maybe Boxfords, along with some others are equipped to take a threading stop clamping to the cross slide ways setting both retraction via the handle and, somewhat crudely, threading depth.

They all get you to the same place in practice.

I decided to do without extra bits and learned the zero-2-zero method.

For some folk one considerable restriction of Martins original Swing Clear tool holder is that it completely replaces the normal tool post. Not compatible with four way blocks or QC systems although it can be revised to fit at the cost of considerable extra overhang. It would work well as part of the quick change (two slot?) block system I've been known to advocate.

Martin made his living with a seriously modified and upgunned Myford so threading and other jobs needing the swing clear holder were batch processes with many parts to do. Switching toolposts was of little consequence.

But if you only have one or two threads to do ....

I have just finished a batch of 6 threaded parts needing 5 tools for each. The swing clear would have been totally impractical for that job.

Clive

Best one I ever saw didn't even need retracting

he reversed his lathe and it lifted the tool up

back to the start... stop the lathe... and it dropped back into the same start position

...clever

Ady1,

When I got my first mill, several years ago, I made one of these from Mike Cox's design,as an exercise in milling. I don't think I ever used it in anger, but it still sits on the shelf above the lathe, waiting to pounce on some unsuspecting piece of stock.

John

I have a pair of swing-up holders (one in use) purchased secondhand, and a bit 'agricultural'. Very handy for allowing easy dimension checks and resetting centre height for different tool sizes. John 'bog-standard' made an example of the self-retracting holder on another forum and seemed very enthusiastic.

rgds

Bill

Any videos of the Martin Cleeve tool holder in action?

John

Hi Ady1, might this be the one you mean Flip up threading tool

Regards Nick.

I remember assisting Dr John Beddard with some technical details of the Prototype for Hemingway's on the Martin Cleeve Retracting Tool Holder. I know this was after Neil Hemingway sold the business, someone Lyons springs to mind. John may have even written it up for SMEE at the time.

The Toolholder was listed with Hemingway's, as I remember the photographs that were used which were taken by John. I also seem to recall some 3D views of this somewhere, may-be the front cover of Martin's book.

The basic mode of operation was an eccentric in the tool block which initially retracted the tool. I cannot remember if the handle would also swing the tool clear, or if this was a separate manual operation.

Regards

Gray,

This appears to be Hemingway’s current version: **LINK**

http://www.hemingwaykits.com/acatalog/Retracting_Tool_Holder.html

... Which is quite unlike Cleeve’s ‘Swing Clear’

Did they also do that one ^^^ ?

MichaelG.

Yes, but machined from solid rather than fabricated in the MC way.

My Hemingway kit version (of the Martin Cleeve ) retracts the tool, and lifts as it retracts.

If I forget to retract the tool, when the lathe is reversed, the tool is swung up so that it does not cut.

Howard

Edited By Howard Lewis on 04/10/2020 14:26:50

.

Thanks for that ... I was not aware

**LINK**

http://www.hemingwaykits.com/cgi-bin/sh000029.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ehemingwaykits%2ecom%2facatalog%2fRetracting_Tool_Holder%2ehtml&WD=swing&PN=Swing_Tool_Post%2ehtml%23aHK_201630#aHK_201630

Nearly sure "Marlco" had a version of the swing up on the market.

Regards Ian.