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DoN. Nichols DoN. Nichols is offline
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Default Size of a tool (lathe!)

On 2009-02-15, Jim Wilkins wrote:
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.


O.K. I presume that you went to MSC or someone else for the
screws and bought a hundred or a gross (whatever they come in) to have
plenty of spares.

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.


Hmm ... probably 20 mm plus a little clearance for the burrs
raised by the clamp screws in shanks which are a bit too soft. If they
were made to a precise fit, it could be difficult to get a burred shank
out of the holder. (And the mushrooming of the screw tips comes into
play as well. :-)

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.


Yep -- "gainfully unemployed" (retired) doesn't bring in the
same money.

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.


A size is for what range of lathe sizes?

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.


Also the squareness for threading.

Actually -- they have another advantage to the manufacturer,
they bring in more money than even the genuine Aloris ones. :-)

A bent Armstrong holder does the same thing if
you grind the bit properly.


But you aren't going to fit a bent Armstrong into one of those
holders. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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