Boring Heads

[Wendelspanswick]

After snapping my only 30mm holesaw halfway through a stack of 10mm plates on the mill and spending a fruitless couple of hours try to get a replacement locally I am going to treat myself to a boring head.

Chronos and RDG both do a 50mm boring head with a 4 Morse Taper shank for around the £60 mark, any one know what the quality is like?

Also I could buy one with a 3 Morse Taper shank which would allow me to also use the head on the pillar drill (a massive gear driven Pollard drill) but this doesn't have the facility for a draw bar plus when using the head on the mill I would have to sleeve the shank with a Morse Taper sleeve and then how do you get the sleeve back out of the quill when you remove the head?

 

[ronan]

I bought a cheapo boring head at an autojumble a few years back, its no great quality, but does the job. The boring bars that came with must have been made by toffo, utterly useless. So if you do buy one be prepared to replace the bars.

 

[rory1]

On The mt3 head I have from rgj tools the taper threads into the boring head.

Quality is fine for what I use it for. The adjusting screw has a bit of slack in it but nothing that can't be overcome. Il take a few pics of the threaded head and taper when I'm near it later

 

[AndyStobbs]

Hows a boring head going to cut a hole though? Just get a 30mm drill bit. I've just bought one on ebay for under £20. Second hand

 

[Spark plug]

Or buy a Rotabroach arbour if you just drilling holes in plate.

Boaring heads are slow and tedious to use, I only use mine to produce holes to a size. Like for bearing housings etc.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Hows a boring head going to cut a hole though? Just get a 30mm drill bit. I've just bought one on ebay for under £20. Second hand

The trouble with your solution is if you now need to drill a 31mm hole you have to buy a 31mm drill for another £20 and wait for it to come.
With a boring head you drill or broach undersize and then you can bore out to whatever finished size you need. The 50mm boring head will bore a hole any size from 9mm to 100mm.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Or buy a Rotabroach arbour if you just drilling holes in plate.

Boaring heads are slow and tedious to use, I only use mine to produce holes to a size. Like for bearing housings etc.

I do have a broaching arbour but not a 30mm broach, in the end I broached to 28mm and then used a fixed boring bar to take it to 30mm.

As to boring bars being slow and tedious, not when you have power feeds on all ways and adjustable trip stops to the feeds!

 

[Spark plug]

I do have a broaching arbour but not a 30mm broach, in the end I broached to 28mm and then used a fixed boring bar to take it to 30mm.

As to boring bars being slow and tedious, not when you have power feeds on all ways and adjustable trip stops to the feeds!

It's not that, it's the stoping the machine after every pass adjust the boring head restart the machine and repeat over and over until your done. This if fine for one off's or holeS to a desired fit but just for makeing holes it's a PITA.

 

[addjunkie]

This was made using a cheapie 50mm indexing boring head. Works a treat. Though i have a sleeving issue, as i upgraded my machine but trimmed the larger sleeve off and a couple of tscks to the smaller tsper sorted it. I had a spare tapet.

 

[Maker]

It's not that, it's the stoping the machine after every pass adjust the boring head restart the machine and repeat over and over until your done. This if fine for one off's or holeS to a desired fit but just for makeing holes it's a PITA.

You could get a facing head and not have to stop the machine.

 

[rory1]

It's horses for courses. If you want to bang out hundreds be/thousands of holes at set diameter then you buy the correct drill (and depending on tolerances a reamer) however, if you don't know what holes you will be boring and at what tolerances then you use the nearest drill that you currently own and bore the hole out to suit.

And carrying on from my first post to the OP, here's a picture
I should imagine that all of the 50mm heads have interchangeable MT shanks. Speak to rgj or chronos and ask them

 

[Flathead_Dave]

Another option,and you're left with discs to use for something else,instead of swarf.

http://www.rapidtoolsdirect.co.uk/product/30mm-m2-cutter-l