On Fri, 6 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.

You are loosely describing a "turret lathe, if you add some sort of
power feed for the tail stock turret you would have something similar
to the first automated production machines. And, yes for repeated
operations it should be substantially faster. :-)

Certainly for your center drill, drill, tap operation, that you
mention in a different post, it will be quicker and if you could some
how index spindle speed it might be even faster.
--
cheers,

John B.