Shims for packing up cutting tools

Edited By Colin Reed on 19/05/2009 12:20:47

Why don't all tool posts come with height adjustment ?

Cost, rigidity, etc

I use transformer laminations for height adjustment (when I'm not using the QCTP).

They come in various thicknesses depending on the size of the transformer.

Bert

For thin packers I use pieces of "Band-it" strap. Metal straps about 0.6 - 0.8mm thick. Used for wrapping around large industrial size packages. Usually thrown in the bin at warehouses.

Hi All

Being a veteran bin scrounger from way back I keep my eye out for steel banding as used on bales and packing crates, It comes in 1/2" 5/8" 3/4" and 1' approx. widths. You often find it on building sites, the perfect material for this job and free!

I keep a supply of cut to the correct length with the ends cleaned up pieces near the lathe, for fine adjustment a small quantity of thinner pieces made from tinplate in a matching size makes the job easy,

I keep often used tools together with their own set of packers that give the correct height.

A little height setting tool I made up in a hurry one day and have been using ever since makes height setting a doddle. Just a small magnet with a post attached that sits on a flat on the saddle.

My lathe has a 4 way tool post I don't find it difficult packing the tool. Most of the time you only need two or 3 tools set to complete a job.

Regards
john

Edited By John McNamara on 30/07/2014 08:49:45

Hi Brian,
If you make a tangential tool holder to fit your tool post you can make fine adjustments to the height by moving the tool bit up or down. I find that I use the tangential tool holder most of the time.

Les.

I have a wall mounted bin with 'shimpack' written on it. Anything small flat and potentially useful as a shim, gets thrown in it with other bits *(like the outside of old ball races) useful as packing when clamping etc.

My most used 'shims' are a battered bit of aluminium the right thickness for 5/16" square shanked tools in my square toolholder and the short pressed steel 'spanner' from a pop riveter, which suits my favourite boring bar.

Neil

I have used al of the above at one time or another; then moved on to a QCTP, much easier, I now use my tangential holder 90% of the time, with QCTP holders set for specified task such as chamfering, parting off, Knurling (diamond & straight), DTI set up, & a couple of boring bars.

George

Noting the comments about tangential tool holders, I have made some. The first was to a design published some time ago, in one of the M.E. magazines, to use 1/8 toolbits, and included the design of a sharpening jig.

Note the Imperial units!

Last week, I made four "beefed up" versions, to use 5/16 toolbits.. One for myself, and the others for The WaterWorks Museum in Hereford. To fit their Colchester and the Loughborough lathes, the 3/4 deep holders need about 3/16 milled off the bottom, when I got there.

Having already made Tool Centre Height Gauges, it was then just a matter of bringing the tip up a little to contact the underside of the blade on the gauge.

The results surprised me greatly. The finish, using a 0.0025/rev feed on a 0.050 cut did not differ to much from that of a 0.001 cut. So much so, that the tangential tool is still in use on the lathe, in place of a holder for CCMT0604 tips!

The 5/16 toolbits ( Kennedy 5% Cobalt) had been ground on a Worden cutter grinder, to the same 20 degree angle as the sharpening jig. (As usual, one job created others, since a holder for the toolbit had to made to to locate it in the Worden).

Howard

Cans from different breweries vary in wall thickness by the odd thou or two. It would be a valuable service to all model engineers everywhere if there was a handy chart of brands and thicknesses which I am prepared to produce after a suitable period of research. Just send full cans to Mike at................................

For anyone keen to make a Tangential Tool holder, (as opposed to buying one of the Australian made ones on sale in U.K.), the article which led me to make one, firstly for 1/8 toolbits, and more recently for 5/16 toolbits, was on page 12 of Model Engineers Workshop No 156 - Autumn 2009.

The only complicated part was making the slot at 12 degrees across the face which was already at 12 degrees to the side of the toolholder shank. The article suggested making the sharpening jig from hardwood, and using woodscrews to clamp. I made mine from metal, and used 4BA capscrews to clamp the bit in the jig for sharpening.

Howard

Robert,

I have a Cowells 90 and made a QCTP for it (dovetail cut out on the fixed part and mating "key" on the holder. Worked great and made life so much easier! I cut the dovetail block on my Axminster micro mill (which only just managed to do it!) and ended up cutting the mating "keys" from aluminium. Given the small cuts you are forced to make using the Cowells, rigidity wasn't an issue.

Were I doing it again (I won't as I bought a Myford and now rarely use the Cowells) I'd make the holders which have a simple large hole bored in them and which clamp onto a central large circular vertical pin. Once you get a production line going you soon turn them out (pun intended).

Regards Tom