Lathe Tools

[MrFluffy]

Shapers are out of vogue, everyone assumes you can do everything on a normal milling machine, but I seen a thread on practical machinist which inspired me to hunt one down again.
In the thread, one guy had a rigid hacksaw frame mounted in the toolholder using it as a donkey saw (think about it, perfect use!), someone else used theirs to power lap between two surfaces, splining, gear cutting without having to have the correct pitch involute cutter (ive only got one size, so everything has to fit that at the moment), slotting, spline cutting without a broach etc etc. Theyre slower for production shops, but we're not so on the meter in our little home workshops...
Heres the one Im going to collect sunday, its flat belt drive so itll be 3 phase by monday. Itll be some bizzaro french make no doubt but it has auto feed on the table etc
http://gallery.pipandphil.com/d/33211-1/812d_1.JPG
He has a flatbelt bandsaw too, that I really fancy, save me converting my little ryobi one. Cept im bloody skint...
I paint everything pale (olive) green

Snowy, its homebrew to the soldering together the controller level, fitted ballscrews to it, made a cross slide etc.. Its a bizarre production turret lathe with originally sensitive feeds and no graticules on all the axis but it got me out of a hole before the harrison turned up, now it was getting in the way so it was either cnc or sell. I just blew one axis on the cnc card though so need to work on that to get it finished. Ill post a thread when its done and Im happy with it.

 

[bill_gj]

The favoured colours for everybody's machines are interesting.

The grey/grey-green/greenish hues seem popular and they remind me of the majority of the machine I had dealings with in a past life - they were all painted 'olive drab' - at least that's what the Ministry of Defence used to call it.

A lot of the machines had little oval brass plates on them that said "Property of the Ministry of Supply".

Before any of you think I'm a REALLY old git, I was but a boy at the time, and the companies I worked for believed in working their machines until they fell apart.

Some of the old Hardinge capstans and Wards had made parts for Spitfires and Hurricanes and were still making bits for Jaguar, Tornado and Concorde.

I still find that smell of 'mystic' soluable oil, soaked into a wood block floor quite invocative of a simpler life.......

Time for my medication now.

 

[malcolm]

That's the thing that struck me looking at MrFluffy's workshop photos - everything matches. Seemed a little extreme until I realised that I'd painted all my old tools light grey. Different shades though.

 

[hareng]

Bill if there was ever a category for the ugliest but most robust, Hardinge would take it.
Ward made some big uns and how on earth they got them in to some of the places i will never know. Last one i did for a regrind was 24 years+ ago, had to get the (from memory between 16 and 20ft long) bed off on site, remove a victorian window and frame on a 2nd story building in Broad St Brum. Loaded on a low loader.

Fitted with the smallest chuck i can get on, this is an action shot at 1000rpm taking a cut of 1/2" (12.7mm) with cross slide power feed, not a murmer- Only aluminium 5" round HE30TF T6 hardness. One of many toolposts i have knocked up but do have a Dickson QR somewhere but mainly use the ****** equivalent. Top tip, dont use grub screws

Have shattered 5/8" HSS decent tool steel putting a cut on- 1/2" about the limit on traverse. Great and cheap for one off jobs, also easy to grind and shape.
Do own many Kennametal and Sandvick cutters, the price shocks me but are superb. Need a decent internal and threading tool, the J&L own brand internal flexes even on sub M18X1, likewise the Chronos are a waste of money being ******, ok for plastic, thats it. Easy to grind your own HSS bit up for threading, the smaller the easier to grind up.

Can be some bargains if you bide your time on ebay, got a Jacobs QR 1 to 16mm chuck for a fiver inc MT3 English arbour.

 

[snowcat]

If we ar going for size rather than looks, this is my small herbert........ now bear in mind its winding a 3" bit through on the capstan............

The biggen has 20hp and winds up on a star delta crank over handle....the soft jaws iv got on the chuck dint even close on anything bellow 2"............. the ships anchor as freinds call it...

 

[hareng]

Robust machines as all Herbies are, proper work horses that will bewilder those that have never seen or used a capstan. Setup and used a few some years ago.

Its a nice size what i have but could do with something with 2"+ through headstock, but that would entail two or three machines for what i do.

 

[snowcat]

I find the capstans great for boaring and parting off, rarely would I finish with one simply because of the lack of a compound slide, that machine will push 3" up the manderel and the no.9a will double that......quite a fan of the old herbert gear and have a few machines knocking round the shop includeing a bank of six drills.......... I keep think anout outing the little ward I have but after counting up the masses of collets, roller boxes, turret parts etc etc, I think it will stay, the two colchesters I have are good machines, both 80s builds but put them up against the old capstans, there not even in the same park.......

 

[hareng]

Keep them unless stuck for space. Even if you were to sell the little un, it would not fetch a lot, a days production?

I have more and better here than at work. Do a lot of one offs and prototyping as and when i want to.
As this is about lathe tools if i can get round to it, got a simple job in the morning involving just three cutters and a drill on aluminium. One cutter is a profile.