Made some quick change tool holders

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liveaboard
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Made some quick change tool holders

Post by liveaboard »

Quick change tool holders;
My lathe came with a quick-change tool post and 3 holders.
I was always looking for more holders, but when I did see any for sale that might fit, they were expensive, $50 each or more. And always just a few at a time even then.
Now that I have a milling machine, I can easily make my own. Well, maybe not easily as it turned out. Nothing is particularly tricky, it was just a huge number of hours.
There is only 1 dimension that has to be accurate, the 82mm distance between the mounting grooves. That took me a few tries because I’m a total novice. One block was ruined so I made 2 more, increasing the number of holders to 15.
I started with a 42mm thick 60kg block from the scrapyard, cut strips of 100x300 with the hacksaw, milled them square, and cut them to 150mm so they’d fit into my vice. There were other possibilities for mounting, but this is how I decided to do it.
I trammed the head to 45 degrees by counting 10 turns of the wheels. Probably the cut doesn’t need that much accuracy but it’s all for the experience. The grooves are cut with a 16mm carbide endmill. The keyslot is cut with a Chinese wingcutter I bought from Amazon for cheap.
3 of the holders are too low to cut the traditional groove for the tool shank, those I drilled to hold a rod (for boring or whatever). A few of the holders are cut extra large for 25mm tools, the rest are 18mm for 16mm tools.
I made the adjustment knobs from C45 and hardened them, the blocks are mild steel. I heated and quenched one, in the off chance the scrap block was high carbon, but there was no noticeable increase in hardness.
I bought a meter of threaded rod from the hardware store here for the adjustment knobs; I used to be able to get better quality but not anymore. In fact, the thread is so malformed I couldn’t bear to use it, even though it would have worked ok. I went to 6 different shops in the area, big, small, chain, independent... they all have the same substandard material.
Good quality 8.8 threaded rod was 2 euros from a webshop, so I wonder how much they paid for the faulty stuff?
75 holes 10mm had to be drilled and tapped, 90 including the adjuster knobs.
I made 2 half shells to clamp the adjusters in the lathe for tapping without damaging the knurls.
I couldn’t source dog point clamping screws for a realistic price so I cut the ends of many 10mm allen screws. I made a simple jig to hold the screws in the lathe chuck.
Conclusion; the hours I spent making the tool holders are probably more than I’ll ever save by having them.
On one small job I did since completing them, I had to switch tools 6 times so I saved maybe 2 minutes. The math might not work, but they are very satisfying, and I’m glad I made them.
scrap steel block.jpg
cutting 40mm block.jpg
milling the raw block.jpg
first groove.jpg
tee slot cutting.jpg
4 blocks.jpg
Last edited by liveaboard on Sat Nov 26, 2022 3:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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liveaboard
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Re: Made some quick change tool holders

Post by liveaboard »

more pics,
cutting side steps.jpg
tramming 45 degrees.jpg
milling machine PPE.jpg
measuring groove distance.jpg
milled ready to cut apart.jpg
cutting apart.jpg
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liveaboard
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Re: Made some quick change tool holders

Post by liveaboard »

more pics;
cutting adjuster knobs.jpg
knurled adjuster.jpg
tapping adjuster knob.jpg
dog point screws.jpg
tool holder ready 1.jpg
tool holder 13mm bore.jpg
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liveaboard
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Re: Made some quick change tool holders

Post by liveaboard »

more pics;
tool holder in hand.jpg
tool holder complete.jpg
15 home made tool holders.jpg
lathe tool rack2.jpg
RSG
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Re: Made some quick change tool holders

Post by RSG »

Very gratifying when you do it yourself! Well done!
Vision is not seeing things as they are, but as they will be.
John Evans
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Re: Made some quick change tool holders

Post by John Evans »

Yep ,satisfieing and handy to have the end product.
www.chaski.com
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Bill Shields
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Re: Made some quick change tool holders

Post by Bill Shields »

You can never have too many.
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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tornitore45
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Re: Made some quick change tool holders

Post by tornitore45 »

You had all the tooling needed, it was inevitable.
Mauro Gaetano
in Austin TX
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NP317
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Re: Made some quick change tool holders

Post by NP317 »

Nicely done!
RussN
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GlennW
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Re: Made some quick change tool holders

Post by GlennW »

Well done!
Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
TimTheGrim
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Re: Made some quick change tool holders

Post by TimTheGrim »

Great job !
Great post !
Thanks.
Illigitimi non Carborundum
'96 Birmingham mill, Enco 13x40 GH and Craftsman 6x18 lathes, Reid 2C surface grinder. Duro Bandsaw and lots of tooling from 30+ years in the machining trades and 15+ years in refinery units. Now retired
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rmac
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Re: Made some quick change tool holders

Post by rmac »

Great job. Making fifteen of anything is tedious, especially with all those tapped holes!
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