On Feb 14, 4:16*pm, "DoN. Nichols" wrote:
Jim Wilkins wrote:
This is the tool post I like best, the Multifix, ...
I found it for $50 while on a treasure hunt for a used Aloris or new
Phase II.

That is a steal! How many tool holders came with it for that
price?
DoN.

Not really enough. It had one boring, one cutoff and two turning
holders with beat-up clamp screws. The tool blocks are bulletproof
chrome-moly so the screws took all the incoming. They are 7mm, not too
easy to find in the US. I put a carefully adjusted threading bit in
the better holder and used the other for everything else.

Oddly the slot is 13/16" high (0.812) instead of an even metric
number. I had to mill down most of my bit holders.

Later I bought one more turning holder from Enco for $100 (ouch!) and
recently a few Chinese ones Tools4cheap special-ordered for me for $50
each, back when I had a paycheck. I haven't seen another second-hand A
size Multifix holder in ~15 years of poking through machinery junk
piles. The few times I looked on Ebay they were only offered in
Europe.

Their only advantage over an Aloris is that they can be rotated to
allow a hand ground HSS bit to both turn and face, without losing
squareness for parting. A bent Armstrong holder does the same thing if
you grind the bit properly.

Jim Wilkins
Multiple posts of this msg possible. Googrou choked on it.