Can anyone help

Evening all, I have a Fortis lathe which recently purchased. I would ideally like another tool holder and a parting off tool. Can anyone advise me what would fit this as there seem to be a lot of different ones out there, unless I’m just showing my newbie greenness!

thanks Mark

Mark

What type of toolpost arrangement do you have ? QCTP or 4 tool type ?

Emgee

Emgee

I have a QCTP

When I was an impecunious 'newbie' I had to make my own tool-holders, both four-way and quick-change. Admittedly, I was fortunate enough to have a vertical slide which allowed simple milling operations on the Myford but, nevertheless it was a good introduction to machining operations.

I am not familiar with the size of the Fortis lathe but if it is around the Myford size may I recommend your make the Radford quick-change tool post and holders. This is far superior to any proprietary design for this size of lathe, IMO, and has stood me in good stead for many years, in fact I keep meaning to make a few more holders in addition to the sixteen I originally made for it. You will find the details in Radford's book which is still in print from TEE Publishing.

Thank you for the reply Chris, I will definitely look into that

Size of tooling will obviously need to suit the toolholder and be capable of setting to centre height.
Next consider the max diameter you will want to part off.

If you use HSS you may be able to grind your own to suit smaller diameter parting.
Many now use the blade type that have carbide inserts with widths ranging from 1.7 to 4mm, smaller widths suit lower power less rigid machines.

There have been good reports on this forum of T shape HSS type blades, perhaps there is a holder available for these blades that will fit your lathe, think Chronos was mentioned.

Emgee

Thank you for the reply

What’s the centre height? More info needed. What have you got? You say “another”

The lathes uk site has a photo of your lathe with a Dickson toolpost. I'd look no further. Plenty of choice of sizes available.

Can you post a photo of what you have Mark? How to described here.

As you've discovered, there are a lot of different ones out there! A picture will reveal what you have. Anything that holds the tools cutting point at the level of the spindle axis will do, but some systems are more satisfactory than others.

Modern lathes tend to come with basic 4 way tool-holders like mine:

The tool is shimmed to centre height. Older lathes may have a slightly simpler arrangement or something else, but tool-posts all feature some way of adjusting tool height.

Perhaps the worst is a nasty boat shaped thingy which is fiddly to adjust and liable to move under pressure. At the other extreme, a quick change tool-post featuring plug-in exchangeable tool-holders, which are individually pre-set for height. The first problem with QTCP holders is identifying the type - they aren't interchangeable. The second problem is a well-made QTCP plus several holders costs mucho lolly.

What's your Fortis fitted with?

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 08/06/2021 11:00:45

Thank you for the help so far. As requested here are some photos of the setup I have

If you can't find that type for sale anywhere then with access to a milling machine they would not be too difficult to make, just made some for an Emco 5 cnc QCTP as none available for sale of the type needed.

Emgee