F. George McDuffee wrote:
snip
As a follow-up to several emails that may be of interest ...

The KRF tool holders work very well for us. The plans are very
helpful, but are "perfection." Very useful tool holders can be
made from 1 X 2 hot rolled with a minimum of machining. It is
helpful to make up a few "blanks."

One custom item we made that is popular with the students is a
tool block that mounts a 5/8 jacobs type chuck using 1/2 X 20
setscrew into both the chuck and the block. This allows power
feed drilling/reaming. The centerline of the drill chuck and the
tool post should be in line to avoid any tendency to twist. [We
made two ...]

The 1_1/8 diameter tool post works well with no flexing or
chatter for us. 1_1/8 is as large a diameter at the standard 5C
collets will take. Water hardening drill rod from Enco seems to
be the best choice for the tool post.

The tool post hole can be bored on a lathe using a faceplate or 4
jaw, but a sharp 1_1/8 Silver and Demming drill is close enough.

The shanks of most tools such knurling tools, parting tools and
and carbide holders are soft [enough] that you can drill mounting
holes to allow these to be attached to a KRF style blank. Two
1/4 X 20 cap screws (with blue locktite) seem adequate. Again
not perfection, but very useful tooling at minimal cost as this
allows the utilization of donated large shank industrial tooling
and large carbide inserts. Negative rake carbide tooling will
work but power and speed are marginal with our lathes.

If you stick with the screw sizes shown on the prints, a single
"Smitty" hex key set will work for all the screws. If you use a
larger clamp screw [3/8 in place of 5/16] you will need two
seperate "Smitty's"

Good information.
Next one will incorporate some of these suggestions.

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Rex Burkheimer
WM Automotive
Fort Worth TX