Lathe tool post question

I've made several square cutter blocks (European style, sort of) by milling the slots for toolbits while mounted in place on the compound.

When milling the slots, shim the block up a distance equal to half the thickness of the intended toolbit, and use an endmill in the lathe that's a bit larger than toolbit size so there's a little room for packing under the bit to fine-tune it's height. Drill and tap for 2 setscrews over the slots.

Mine have two cutter bits per block, pointing in opposite directions. I usually put a righthand bit in one side, and a left in the other. Once I get the toolbit set to the correct height on each of the half-dozen blocks I made, I have a poor man's quick-change tool system--not indexable, but I never really needed that.

Ken Grunke

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Ken Grunke
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If you have access to a vertical slide for the lathe or a milling machine or shaper you may like to build your own. I've recently built a Stevenson toolpost:-

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and find it to be very good. One advantage of it is that you can scale it to fit your lathe. I made mine to fit my 7" swing Myford But I've visited John Stevenson and seen him using one on a 14" swing TOS lathe.

Mark Rand RTFM

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Mark Rand

replying to Jaggy Taggy, Ricmcc wrote: Im on my second lathe, both had/have lantern tool posts, I like them and not changing

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Ricmcc

replying to Jaggy Taggy, Ricmcc wrote: Im on my second lathe, both had/have lantern tool posts, I like them and not changing

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Ricmcc

This thread has been dead for 16 years.

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Michael Terrell

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