Tool holders for T2 (I think) quick change toolpost

[Jonathan]

Hi,

I'm looking for toolholders to fit the quick change toolpost on my lathe. It didn't come with any! The toolpost is 97x97x72mm, so I think it's a T2 since that's the same as the T2 one here:

http://www.chronos.ltd.uk/cgi-bin/sh...ml%23aT2S#aT2S

It looks good, all the surfaces are ground. Quite annoying at the moment I've got the lathe but no way to hold any tools! If it comes to it I'll get one chronos and hope it fits.

Here's a picture:



Thanks in advance.

[i2i]

have you tried the engineers merchants like cromwell, mscj+j, buck and hickman, ect.

[Jonathan]

have you tried the engineers merchants like cromwell, mscj+j, buck and hickman, ect.

I've tried J&J and Cromwell - they're £50-70, seems a bit much. I can't find any at buck and hickman, do you know of any others?

[M250cnc]

I've tried J&J and Cromwell - they're £50-70, seems a bit much. I can't find any at buck and hickman, do you know of any others?

Little lathe cheap parts, big lathe expensive parts

I have various holders the next size down from various manufactures from original to new Chronos types

The newer ones are very flimsy which i only use for small boring tools etc the older beefier types for the bigger tools.

One thing i can say is hardly any fitted correctly which wasn't an issue when manual turning, but when i went cnc those errors were unacceptable and i had to grind the tool post and all the holders, now changing tools i can hold a tolerance of 0.01mm on diameter.

The other place is ebay i still want more so i may make my own in the long term.

Tooling can cost more than the machine, currently i have 26 plus the tools in them + insets = 3 to 4 times the cost of the lathe.

Phil

[Jonathan]

I got one of the holders from Chronos for £26.95:



It seems to fit well and is 'solid'. Even at that price it's going to cost a fair bit to get enough (though not 26!), and it's going to take a long time to make my own.

There's a version of it here with the proper square bolts:

http://www.rdgtools.co.uk/acatalog/Q..._Holders_.html

Slightly more expensive but I might get one and compare.

[M250cnc]

Jonathan that toolpost in the picture is 180 degrees out. :confused:

If you are doing manual then yeah you don't need too many but cnc it takes so long to set them that it is worth it in the long run.

Phil

[i2i]

it is:heehee:

[Jonathan]

Jonathan that toolpost in the picture is 180 degrees out. :confused:

Yes it is, didn't matter for what I was doing though! I realised what I'd done once I'd put the tool in...

If you are doing manual then yeah you don't need too many but cnc it takes so long to set them that it is worth it in the long run.

No doubt I will convert it to CNC soon.

[i2i]

if you're going to cnc you may want to look over the toolplate idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehit1ip1LfM

[Jonathan]

if you're going to cnc you may want to look over the toolplate idea.

The toolplate does look like a good way of doing it, but more awkward to set up and not as many tools. Also limits travel I suppose. Great for small jobs like in the video though. It's a similar concept to what I did with the milling machine here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wGDMSiZpyg

I didn't video it but for a different part I clamped a couple of drills to the milling machine table and got it to use them all. Another way to do it would be to mount tools to a rotary table.

I will still want to use the lathe manually when it's converted to CNC.