On Fri, 06 Jan 2017 13:06:54 -0700, Bob La Londe wrote:

So, for a manual lathe who has found a tailpost turret to be really
useful?

I know for some folks it would be useless. On the lathe I am thinking
baout getting one for I mostly use one single tool 90% of the time to
radius pins.
I still have a QCTP on it, because its easier to set tools at the right
height, and when I do change tools it seconds. Not even tens of
seconds.

I recently setup a job where I had to make several parts where I had to
use 4 tools in the tail post. It was no big deal for one part, but for
several I started to begrudge the time spent changing tools. I think
with as few as half dozen parts the time setting up a turret for the job
would have been less than the time spent changing tools.

The ones available are pretty inexpensive as tools go, but I still hate
to throw money at stuff without having a commensurate time savings.

I still consider myself a hobby machinist, but as of the first of the
year the mold making business is my main business. This is a type of
pin I can see myself having to make a few times per year. Not always
the same, but similar. I could probably set up the turret for it
leaving one hole open, and do all of this type of job I am likely to do
with the same set of tools preloaded in the turret. I could probably
break even on it in two years at my current rate of this type of job.
On the other hand, I might wind up doing more of them now that its my
main job.

I've read some forums, and watched a few videos. A few guys really love
them, but a lot of folks seem to think its a tool that would mostly be
tool drawer candy.

I am still in the process (its been a couple years now) of setting up my
smallest lathe for CNC, and ultimately this type of job would be done
with a gang tooling setup on it. On the flip side, I think the turret
would speed up this type of job instantly. I could even make lots of
tool holders for it so setting up for a different job would be fairly
quick.

Do you mean tool post or tail post?

I have a tool post turret, and even as a hobby machinist I find it's
handy to keep two or three tools in it at any given time. Usually it'll
be a cutoff tool and a right-hand turning tool, but sometimes it'll be a
right-hand turning tool and a left-hand turning tool (for facing).

Every once in a while I'll do some short run of identical things, in
which case I'll actually put some thought into what's in the tool post,
and I'll index it, and all the rest -- then I can zip through the lower-
precision parts of a job just by looking at the numbers on the dial.

I don't have a turret on the tail post, but if it did, and if I had the
money to populate it, it'd have several Jacob's chucks with the most
commonly used drill sizes in it, or one quick-change Jacob's and a center.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

I'm looking for work -- see my website!