Mills and Drills

Thanks for this pointer. The non-anodized one is $25 cheaper. Does the Anodized version provide any benefits besides apparance?

BTW - I just uncrated and set up the MicroLux lathe. All checks out well, using the info on mini-lathe.com. but the compound slide was stiff. So I checked the cross feeding screw and it was off

0.003". I'll have to give MicroMark a call.

The 7x14 is supposed to have hardened and heavier ways. Let's keep my fingers crossed. Thanks.

Yes -- especially if it is hard anodized (a thicker coat, IIRC). It reduces surface wear, though it adds little to the rigidity.

O.K. Good Luck, DoN.

Thanks for the help, Don.

I found another one that's between the two prices of $75 and $300. I'd like to get your opinion on this one.

It's $155+$25 (for the new base). As I see it, the advantages are 1) It's steel, not aluminum 2) It comes with 5 tool holders, not 3. 3) It's compatible with Aloris, Dorian and Phass II toolholders. 4) It's wedge, not piston 5) I think it can hold 4 holders, not 2.

Of course, the best product in the world does me no good if it's not available.

Ok, That that would allow, A) One facing or boring tool along with two cutters(or simular sized) tools, B) Two facing or boring tools, or C) Four cutter tools.

Is there another name for this indicator used for centering?

I guess that nothing on a "serious" lathe should be made of Aluminum. And I'm wondering if some sort of modular cast iron table would help reduce chatter tendencies.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

According to :

Right. Picture wanting to make several of something on which you need to:

1) Turn the OD

2) Face the free end.

3) Thread at least part of the OD.

4) Drill the center out.

5) Bore to a specific ID.

6) Thread at least part of the ID.

That takes:

Two turning style tool positions (1) and (3) above,

the tailstock (4) above,

and

Three facing/boring stations (2), (5), and (6).

It is projects like this where a quick-change toolpost with two dovetails, and a sufficient quantity of tool holders makes a big difference.

Granted, you could get two of the turret style toolposts of identical design, load one with the turning & OD threading tools, and the other with the boring. facing, and ID threading tools, and simply have to swap turret toolposts twice per part (neglecting other, as yet unspecified, operations which might need to be done once it is released from the chuck and turned around to gain access to the other end.)

Lots of names. One example (which several of us don't particularly like) is Starrett's "Last Word" style indicator. This is the exception to Starrett's otherwise excellent line of tools.

Others, such as the B&S "Bestest", and several import brands are excellent. Ideally, you will want one graduated in thousandths of an inch, good for centering rough surfaced stock, and one which reads in "tenths" (0.0001" divisions) for seriously precise centering.

Or -- you can mount a plunger style indicator, and use it.

Or -- one of the back plunger ones with the extension which allows reaching into small IDs to measure runout.

So -- whichever you find first will determine how you mount it, but most can be mounted (perhaps with some form of adaptor) in a standard turning/boring holder.

Or -- on a toolpost by Aloris or some of the clones, there is a threaded hole on the far side to which an arm for mounting the indicator can be attached. I tend to keep two sensitivities of the smaller indicators in two tool holders for convenient use.

Well ... something like the cast cover over the gears, or over the belts and back gears on the headstock could be aluminum, though I think that the covers for my 12x24" Clausing are cast iron. Some later machines have bent sheet steel serving the purpose. Those are not truly structural parts.

But nothing which is a part of the stress path from spindle to bed and up to tools should be aluminum. And, the tailstock casting should also not be aluminum.

That might be overkill -- especially given your stairs and the difficulty of getting it upstairs.

Enjoy, DoN.

That looks good. And I see that they have provided for the problem which I would otherwise see with using an AXA size toolpost on a small lathe (that the tool would not adjust low enough to become on center). That is handled by the new base.

Yes.

Yes -- sort of. The knurling holder I consider to be a waste of steel. It could be used to hold a boring or facing tool, at least. For as small a lathe as you have, I would suggest a scissors style knurling system, not this (which is called "bump knurling", and which puts significant stresses on almost *any* machine.

Agreed.

Quite important.

I don't think so. It looks like one of the standard Aloris clones, and those have only two dovetails -- but they don't *need* any more -- at least the way I use them. (Mine are BXA size, not AXA, as is appropriate for my size of lathe.)

You noticed the "backordered" status. You could order one of the clones from other vendors, including New England Brass and Tool. I had not suggested that because I did not know of the modification to the compound base which allowed it to be used. I wonder who actually makes it.

Good Luck, DoN.

I am using a Dorian MD-20 toolpost on my Myford. It is wonderful for this size machine and I like it better than a very nice Myford clone I had before. I got it for $50 used, but the new price is probably more than your lathe.

chuck

Ok. I was finally zooming in on one of the wedge styles you have been discussing and now I have to investigate turrent tool posts. :-) I assume that one can be bought for a lathe of this type. In fact, here is one on eBay.:

I assume that the threaded hole you mentioned is different than that used for a traveling steady rest.

I will be looking for Digital or Dial Calipers, as well as Dial Indicators and Dial Test Indicators. I want to basically be able to mesure with a relatively high accuracy the I.D. as well as the O.D. when necessary.

That's why the key word is modular. :-) A table I can just bolt more plates to for stability, and can break down to multiple parts that I can be moved one at a time when I have to.(Perhaps that'll be one of my projects, but I suspect that it can only help so much with such a small lathe).

Thanks.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

According to :

"Turret" -- also called "four-way toolposts. I feel the wedge style quick-change to be a better choice -- I was just mentioning an alternate approach to production setups just to be complete.

Interestingly enough, the bottom-most of the cluster of photos actually shows a somewhat different style of quick-change toolpost where it is show turning some aluminum (I think) with a fairly shallow depth of cut.

Most of the shots show it with a turret style toolpost (fairly bright metal), while this one shows a toolpost of black finished steel.

The dovetails on it are backwards from the Aloris style (which is the most copied style), and each is clamped onto the tool holder by an Allen-head cap screw passing through the body of the toolpost. It draws the dovetail walls together, with the sides flexing at the vertical holes at the ends of the slots. It looks like a fairly reasonable design, except that you will be locked into one source for the tool holders, while with a Phase-II, or an Aloris, or any of a number of other makers -- all of whose tool holders interchange on their (and other maker's) toolposts.

The main thing, before you order the toolpost, is to determine the height of the lathe's center above the top of the compound. Most of the makers provide a chart of the height from the bottom of the tool holder to the top of the slot which holds the tools. As long as this is at least slightly below the center height of the lathe, the adjustment of the tool holder will allow you to adjust any tool in the holder to the proper height.

Note also that unlike most compounds (which have a T-slot to accept whatever toolpost is selected), this compound appears to simply have a threaded hole -- so you may have one of your first projects threading the proper thread (likely a metric one) to match the hole for the rod which secures the toolpost to the compound. (If you had the usual T-slot, you would instead be needing to machine the plate which comes on the bottom end of the rod to a proper fit in *your* T-slot, as different lathes have different sizes of T-slots.)

[ ... ]

Very different. The threaded hole I mentioned is on the right side of the toolpost, not on the carriage, which is the normal situation for mounting a follower rest. Many lathes have the mounting holes on the side of the carriage, but my Clausing has a pair of threaded holes on the top surface of the arms of the carriage (which have a flat top, and which move back on either side of the headstock -- a system which is not present on your indicated lathe, in part because the headstock occupies the whole width of the bed, plus a bit. The follower rest slides over a pair of studs threaded into the arms, and is held down by washers and nuts. I have both the official one from Clausing, and another one from an unknown maker which required me to make a pair of spacers for the feet to adjust the height of the back support. That one is a "telescoping" style, and is nicer for smaller workpieces.

Note that calipers (digital or dial, or even the old vernier ones) are not as accurate as a proper micrometer for the OD measurement, and for really accurate ID measurement, something like a "tri-mic" from B&S (actually Tesa in Switzerland), but those are quite expensive. As a result, you might want to get some telescoping gauges, and learn to use them with a good micrometer. (By "good", I mean one which has the vernier on the thimble to allow reading to 0.0001" (tenths), instead of just 0.001".

Note that the digital calipers will read to a *resolution* of

0.0005", but this does not mean that they are that accurate. You will want to check any which you have against a set of gauge blocks (even the cheap Chinese sets are accurate to 0.000050" (50 millionths of an inch), so they should be adequate for verifying the accuracy of the calipers. (And, in the process, you can learn how sensitive the calipers can be to the amount of force used to close them onto the object being measured.

Oh -- I was mis-reading that as "nodular" -- a style of cast iron used for machine castings.

O.K.

Yes, that is so.

Good Luck, DoN.

Ok. Then I can stop watching those eBay auctions. :-)

I wonder how plausible it would be to make one's own tool holders. I guess taht even good ideas sometimes run into compatibility issues with the established market.

Since there is nothing wrong with the Aloris design, perhaps patent(royalty) issues are the reason for this "new" design.

If only ebay auctions had all the necessary info to make these decisions. Case in point. I've been trying to find out what metal these tool posts were made of before the auctions ended:

?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7587609273?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7589476660 Also, I was reading something about the inconsistency of tool holder height(between H.F., Grizzly, ect.) at >

Tooling Up > Getting Started. It was about a recommendation to mill down the bottom edge of the tool holder if needed. Basically this is one of the subtle differences between the import lathes of this type.

Speaking of lathe mods. I'm reading something concerning reaming out the spindle bore. There are obvious advantages to doing this, but even though some have done it, I really don't know if it is a good idea.

It's like the makers of that tool post went out of their way to try something different(even though there doesn't seem to be an obvious need for their changes).

Ok, that means that the micrometer that I have will not be sufficient, and I'll have to get a good one along with telescoping gauges. I'll see if there are any pics on eBay. :-)

Ok, gauge blocks are now also on my list.

Outside of that, I need to find a way to measure circle concentricity.(Was that the correct way to say that?). So I guess one of those "plunger" type indicators would suffice.

You're a virtual metal working encyclopedia. :-)

Thanks a lot.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

Check the "Modifications" on the mini-lathe.com web site.

According to :

Yes.

Plausible -- with some dovetail milling cutters, and a *hefty* milling machine. I'm not sure about with as small a machine as you are considering -- let alone attempting to do it on a lathe with a milling adaptor.

This is simply cheaper to manufacture. Since Phase II is producing very close clones of the Aloris wedge style toolpost (along with the older Aloris "piston" style), I suspect that the patents are expired by now.

The piston style is cheaper to manufacture than the wedge style, and this one is even cheaper.

I'm not going to bother to visit all of the auctions. The first one is steel, and is a pretty close clone of the Aloris AXA size, which is probably what you will need for your lathe, though you *might* need the lower height compound.

I have no idea how good the quality of the steel may be, nor where it was made. I suspect India as one of the lowest budget sources of tooling these days. If so, the metal is probably somewhat questionable, but until you try it, you won't know. Plan to replace the setscrews, in any case, with low budged tool holders.

Note that your lathe maker offers a compound which has been milled down, to allow the AXA size toolpost and holders to be used, based on some other things which you have posted links to earlier. I consider it better to fit the single milled down compound, instead of having to mill the bottom of the rather hardened steel on each holder, (thus weakening them), and having to face doing it again every time you get more tool holders.

It depends on how much meat is in the machine. And it *might* induce warpage in the spindle, if the existing hole is somewhat off center.

That is not the tool post, but the design of the compound on your selected lathe. The T-slot is necessary for the old "lantern" style toolposts, which have fallen way out of favor. For the turret toolposts, and the quick-change ones, there is really no need for the T-slot, other than allowing a bit of adjustment to the side. And, a drilled and tapped hole in the top of the compound costs less (in machining terms) than a T-slot. (And, it can survive with a poorer grade of cast iron in the compound.)

I would suggest a set from 0-6" (six micrometers) to cover everything which you could make on that lathe. For most things, a smaller set of 0-3" (3 micrometers) would suffice. (I've got a set of

0-3" with the 0.0001" resolution (vernier thimble), a set of B&S 0-6 with only 0.001" graduations (direct reading), and a collection of others to cover the 6-12" range for the maximum size of workpiece over the bed on my 12x24" lathe.

They are useful. Be prepared to keep them coated to prevent rusting -- and to use something which does not leave a hardened layer of wax when they sit for a while, as that layer can introduce errors when working to those dimensions.

The concentricity (at least as mounted in the lathe) is handled with a "runout" indicator, which is not as good for precise measurement, but is good to show centering errors.

[ ... ]

I've simply read a lot -- and absorbed a lot of what I have read.

Enjoy, DoN.