Name of Tools Used for Mill Tool Holder Retaining Bolt

I'm really sorry to ask such a basic question. What's the right name for the tools used to loosen or tighten the retaining bolt on these tool holders for the mill? It's a European mill and metric.

It's my generation - we were just taught to always expect a hex / imbus retaining bolt on tool holders and I don't know what the tool is called for these.

The name I'm familiar with is the highly unimaginative "Shell Mill Arbour Spanner", although as most shell mill arbours use a nut with four cut-outs, they also get called a "Cross Spanner".

If you're struggling to source a two lobed spanner for it, you might find that a drum key (as used for opening 205 drums) will work on yours depending on dimensions (hard to have a sense of scale, but those look a bit like iso 50 holders) else I'd probably manufacture a beefy pin spanner from some scrap or buy a cross spanner and grind two lobes off.

Edited By Jelly on 24/03/2023 19:40:02

They may not have a name because they are likely to be proprietry tools which only fit those cutters. I would unscrew them with a drift and see if it was easy to make something more spanner friendly. The heads will have to be low profile, though, I made a strange mark across the work surface when the SHCS on a new shell mill contacted before the inserts did, due to an over thick washer.

Pin spanner? They're easy to make.

Dave

Or “peg”? Usual reference is about trying to‘fit a square peg in a round hole’.🙂

Weld a couple of suitably sized/spaced blocks to a piece of steel strap to make a custom spanner. That's what, five minutes work in total?

Edited By Nick Wheeler on 24/03/2023 22:34:29

Looks like a plumbers basin wrench might fit the bigger nut with a little grinding

Thank you very much!

We've got a whole cupboard of those arbours at all different sizes - 10 or 20 in total - so need a set of tools for them or one adjustable tool.

Thanks for mentioning mill arbour spanners - agree about the 4 points - all the mill arbour spanners that I could find had 4 points not 2 and the geometry of the points was different.

An adjustable pin spanner might well be a way to do it - I hadn't seen the characteristic two round holes for a pin spanner so I hadn't thought of that and the adjustable pin spanner I have here is for much smaller, lighter things.

There also seems to be a much heaver duty version of a pin spanner - an adjustable gland nut wrench - intended for the glands at the ends of hydraulic cylinders - so I've ordered one of those. The pins are round not square so not a precise fit but might be good enough. I'll see how things go with it and if it doesn't seem robust enough I'll turn down a piece of stock to the right diameter for each arbour then mill the two teeth in the ends of those.

Thank you all very much for letting me know that they're proprietary - I was beginning to wonder if I was going crazy not knowing any standard tool for them.

The original tool or tools got parted from the mill and arbours before my friend bought them.

The mill is a Reiden HF30 Mill:

I don't think that spanner has a specific name. It is quite easy to make one on the lathe and mill. Just about a half hour to make it. Less if you have a piece of tubing about the right size. Don't bother figuring out a handle. Just cross drill for a tommy bar.

We used to make tools for that job from old 1/2" sockets with two pieces of key steel welded to the outside.

Noted. That's even better than my suggestion.

amazon

This is a bit pricy but looks like what you need.

A simple solution if one has a welder. Another alternative is to turn a lump of steel to a suitable diameter and mill across the centre and sides to provide the pegs. Maybe a hole through the bar for a tommy bar. Job done.

Either way, I would most certainly not be shelling out £130 for a fancy tool - unless I had a very large number of these bolts or nuts (in different sizes) to loosen/tighten on a regular basis.

I eventually found the right set of 8 tools - the seller was selling them as "Spannschlussel" so I don't think he was sure of the formal name for them either - Spannschlüssel covers a fairly wide range of tools in German. Would also have been fun to make them on the lathe and mill.