Quick and Easy Tangential Tool Holder

[JAndrew]

Hello,

I was able to make a RH tangential tool holder yesterday fairly quick and easy using my lathe's milling attachment and a 1/4" wide woodruff keycutter. The milling attachment was the easiest way I could come up with for cutting compound angles. I had to have the 7/8" 12L14 stock hanging out a bit and feared rigidity issues but it came out very tight! Here's some pictures:

Please disregard the blatant advertising for peanut butter and those dreadful philips head screws. I'll replace the screws later with some nice hex button head bolts. I will have to remove the top screw if I ever I need to face greater than a 5/16" shoulder.
Here's some other shots:

I "hogged" out the shank section on my newly acquired Diamond Horizontal Mill with a 3/8" wide cutter. Pretty awesome machine! In the last photo there you can see some heavy lines. I left those there as a constant reminder to me to ensure the drawbar is tight before starting to run the machine!:wall:

It was a good easy project. Only took me about 2.5 hours. A good deal of that time was spent fighting with slightly oversized T-slot nuts on the Diamond mill's table.

I'll post some more pictures after taking some cuts. I ran out of time and didn't get to try it out yet. Not sure if I'll take the time to make a matching LH one soon.

Thanks!
-J.Andrew

 

[ironman1962]

Very nice!! I've been interested in making something like this. What degree did you set the tool at?

 

[Omnimill]

Very nice!! I've been interested in making something like this. What degree did you set the tool at?

Most folks seem to find 12 degrees works well.

 

[JAndrew]

Very nice!! I've been interested in making something like this. What degree did you set the tool at?

Just like OmniMill stated. I've heard of people using 12 degrees and people using 15 degrees. I'm not sure how accurate my milling attachment's protractors are so I set them both to 12.5 degrees (kanted forward and to the left). The bit itself is ground at 30 degrees across the diagonal.

With these angles the point of the diamond puts an 83 degree angle into the part being turned. So I should be able to turn and face without changing angle on the QCTP.

I've never used one before but the videos I've seen are all pretty impressive. Cant wait to try it out.

Thanks for the posts.
-J.Andrew

 

[Omnimill]

This is mine, it works well.

 

[JAndrew]

OmniMill,

Very nice! I hope mine doesn't ride to high. What's the gray color and what material is that? Very nice contours and nut configuration!

-J.Andrew

 

[Omnimill]

I have no idea what type of steel it is, it came from the scrap bin. I sandblasted it when it was finished though. I only put the step in it to give it plenty of clearance for swarf etc but it doesn't need to be that deep.

 

[Wizard69]

I have no idea what type of steel it is, it came from the scrap bin. I sandblasted it when it was finished though. I only put the step in it to give it plenty of clearance for swarf etc but it doesn't need to be that deep.

I think the question is what did you finish the tool with. It has a gray color in the pic that doesn't appear to be paint nor natural steel color. From my perspective I'm always interested in rust resistant finishes. I've been using Birchwood Casey Cold glueing with mixed results.

 

[gus]

Hi JANDREW & Wizard,
You got me trapped. Will make one set too. Been eyeing these cutters but they cost an arm and leg to land in Singapore. Too bad CTCtools does not sell them. So DIY my own. Now ransacking scrap bin.

 

[Omnimill]

I think the question is what did you finish the tool with. It has a gray color in the pic that doesn't appear to be paint nor natural steel color. From my perspective I'm always interested in rust resistant finishes. I've been using Birchwood Casey Cold glueing with mixed results.

I finished it in my sandblasting cabinet using aluminium oxide grit. It then had a wipe over with Renwax to stop it rusting. Sandblasting is a nice looking finish but probably makes the item more likely to rust if you don't put something on it. The best stuff is probably Lanolin, they use it on boats so it must be good! I use whatever is to hand at the time.

I remember now, it was made from old gym machine weights, the rectangular ones with three holes in them.

 

[Omnimill]

If you take a look at this picture, I made the knurling tool from plain mild steel with the same sandblasted finish. It's a darker grey colour because it's got dirty in use!

 

[JAndrew]

Hi JANDREW & Wizard,
You got me trapped. Will make one set too. Been eyeing these cutters but they cost an arm and leg to land in Singapore. Too bad CTCtools does not sell them. So DIY my own. Now ransacking scrap bin.

Gus,

Sorry to add to your project list! But I've seen your work and you'll be able to make one of these way better and faster than I ever could. Please post whatever you do finally make though. Interested to see the ingenious variations people have come up with.

OmniMill,

Nice pics and very nice knurler!

Thanks for the posts all. Didn't get to test it last night. Got home too tired and late.

-J.Andrew

 

[Wizard69]

I finished it in my sandblasting cabinet using aluminium oxide grit. It then had a wipe over with Renwax to stop it rusting. Sandblasting is a nice looking finish but probably makes the item more likely to rust if you don't put something on it. The best stuff is probably Lanolin, they use it on boats so it must be good! I use whatever is to hand at the time. I remember now, it was made from old gym machine weights, the rectangular ones with three holes in them.

Thanks for the info! Most likely that is a castiron which might explain the appearance in the photo. Actually I'm surprised that wax lasts in a machining environment. For a minute I was thinking that you had used one of those bake on ceramic finishes used on firearms.

 

[Omnimill]

It does not have the grain structure of cast iron, it doesn't cut like iron either. Pretty sure it's steel of some kind.