home brewed quick change tool post

[ttrikalin]

I have the lantern style toolpost of my new old south bend 10K.

This was enough to justify making a QCTP - roughly the size of those sold by A2Z.

This is a toolholder with a 1/4 right hand tool in it.

this is the body, made out of aluminium. 2 dovetails.

this is the thingy that pushes the piston when rotated -- to lock the toolholder in place. I drilled 6 holes for a tommy bar.

Piston (I owe me another one for the other face).

the t-nut for the south bend cross-slide.

and the locking screw -- I turned some stainless, put an external 10-32 thread on the lower part (left); drilled and tapped for 10-32 on the other side and brazed a socket head short screw in there. I am sure the brazing is not superb, but holds in few tests.

and these are another 5 toolholder blanks. they remain blank as I am not sure of the size of the holders -- they seem bulky to me, and perhaps I should trim them down... I have never seen lest used a QCTP myself -- only in internet images, so not sure about relative sizes. Anyway... I do not give a rats a$$ even if I have to scrap the lot, I enjoyed too much making it.

have not used it yet... Will use it and see. I have CADed plans, will post them...

take care,
tom

 

[steamer]

OK ...I've been distracted by "stacked vectors".....OK fill me in on this

Linear algebra or what am I missing?

Dave

 

[ttrikalin]

OK ...I've been distracted by "stacked vectors".....OK fill me in on this
Linear algebra or what am I missing?
Dave

haha, old proofs from a paper we should be submitting any day now... I recycle them as scrap paper (I usually print on one side only... )
Not lin alg... Biostatistics...


Or should I say "a part of a finite-element-based stress analysis for the QCTP" :

 

[ttrikalin]

And this is how it looks like on the new old lathe...

take care,

tom

 

[steamer]

I like it Tom!

Are they compatible with Aloris style holders?...I suppose that's a silly question.. :

Dave

 

[ttrikalin]

who knows :

 

[steamer]

;D

When you get a chance...Pm me with an abstract of your paper if you can...

Dave

 

[Stan]

A nicely made QCTP and I expect you will never go back to the lantern post after you get used to the quick change. Make as many holders as you have different tools in use. Set them up and you save hours of set up time on even the simplest of jobs.

 

[90LX_Notch]

Tom-

Very nicely done. One suggestion, double nut the adjustment nut so you don't lose it's setting.

-Bob

 

[mklotz]

Nice job, Tom, although I wonder how the aluminum tool post dovetails will survive the inevitable bangs and dings of repeated tool mountings.

Think about tapping a hole in one of the blank toolholders so that you can mount a 1" DI horizontally to serve as a convenient indicator when centering stuff in the 4-jaw. I've done that and found it very helpful.

Another trick I've done is to shorten one toolholder such that a standard length HSS blank will project out of each end. I have both ends sharpened to a ninety degree 'V' and use it for chamfering exterior radii in one position and the edges of bores in the other position.

Aside: Of course, it's not mandatory that the toolholder be shortened. One can simply mount two tools in one holder, shimming one of them such that both are on center when mounted. However, the whole point of a QCTP is to avoid shimming.

 

[ttrikalin]

thanks, all, for the comments.

bob, yes, I will turn some brass nuts with a second nut to keep the adjustment in place. This is just a test fit.

marv, yes, i will adopt both suggestions (holders for DTI and chamfering tool). As for the Ali dovetails... honestly I do not care... if it breaks I'll make one out of mild steel... or buy a used one...

BTW, marv, I browsed your website, very very nice collection of utilities... I'll script a scraper to get them all... with your permission of course...

tom in ma

 

[mklotz]

BTW, marv, I browsed your website, very very nice collection of utilities... I'll script a scraper to get them all... with your permission of course...

Scrape away, Tom, they're all in the public domain. Be aware, however, that I do occasionally make changes and improvements to the programs as well as correcting errors if any are pointed out to me. If you use a program often, it's worth checking to ensure that you have the latest version.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Tom I bought a box of thumb nuts from McMaster Carr to do mine. Looks like like the price jumped when I was not looking almost $0.50 each by the box of 25 http://www.mcmaster.com/#thumb-screw-nuts/=ddmxjk
Tin

 

[Tin Falcon]

Timgoldstein the owner of A2ZCNC posts stuff on e-bay his item descriptions include drawings like this one.

Tin