# Has anyone made a set of boring bars for a boring head?



## HMF (Apr 28, 2011)

I know you can buy them, but has anyone fabricated a set of boring bars for a boring head?

Any photos of how you did it?

Thanks!



Nelson


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## rgray (Sep 20, 2013)

I made alot of boring bars for the lathe and have recently made a few for boring heads.
I use 1144 sp tgp steel. I broach the square hole for the bit and offset it so the cutting edge is on center then mill a small flat for the set screw from the boring head to tighten on.


	

		
			
		

		
	
2inch and 4 inch x 1/2". 2" has 1/8"bit and 4" has 3/16".


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## rgray (Sep 20, 2013)

My pics loaded wrong. I struggle with that. The first is at the bottom 2nd at the top and 3rd under it.
	

		
			
		

		
	




	

		
			
		

		
	
I see it's not popular. What got me started was the boring head build in Harold Halls Milling book. So I built one. I buily mine out of aluminum and put the adjuster in the body rather than in the cutter carrier as he did. I used a micrometer spindle for the aduster. It is a 3" head and I used it in my tailstock to offset and cut morse tapers as told by GaryK. I used a 1/4" dished shaft running in ball bearings and with a larger ball bearing between the shaft and the work instead of the live center as Gary did.
I then built a 2" head and with not much room for the mic spindle I placed it external. Then I built it in steel and eliminated the gib strip by sawing a groove next to the dovetail. It has 3 3/8" reciever holes with one at a 45 degree angle.
My latest in the last pic is a 2" in steel no gib and with 1/2" reciever holes one at 45 degrees. Most boring heads have a hole at 90 degrees I opted for the 45 degree as the micrometer head is in the way and would limit use of a 90 deg hole. Now if I could just build it so the top is nonturning so the mic could be adjusted on the fly...been giving that some thought it gets complicated.


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