advise on toolholders

C

charles roper

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I bought and finally moved into place in my shop a '47 14 x 54 pacemaker lathe. I want to use it to repair and build parts for my farming equipment. For the most part I believe the steels I will be working with to be on the soft side of the scale. My current problem is figuring out what kind of toolholders to buy for my CXA toolpost. It will handle 3/4" shanks. There is a mind boggling variety and configurations for these things. I made the decision on selecting the toolpost myself after much study. I'm afraid I don't have the wherewithal to figure out these tool holders no matter how much I ponder and study. I certainly can afford to buy one of each. If one of you experienced readers of this can
see kind of what I'm dealing with, I'd appreciate knowing what three or four of these toolholders you would buy if you were in my place. Suggestions appreciated.
 
Tool holders, like Aloris QCTP holders? I have 5 holders for my Aloris AXA. Standard, standard with V groove (for small bar), universal (wide), parting, and 3/4" boring bar holder. Use all but the 3/4" bar holder, but really I wish I had more holders. Changing out toolbits in the middle of a job is a pain, and you loose all your dial settings.

Tool holders, like inserted carbide stuff....I'm clueless. I use only HSS and brazed carbide, but this video might help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzPIUsMtUEM

Hope this helps :))
 
Andre said:
Tool holders, like Aloris QCTP holders? I have 5 holders for my Aloris AXA. Standard, standard with V groove (for small bar), universal (wide), parting, and 3/4" boring bar holder. Use all but the 3/4" bar holder, but really I wish I had more holders. Changing out toolbits in the middle of a job is a pain, and you loose all your dial settings.

Tool holders, like inserted carbide stuff....I'm clueless. I use only HSS and brazed carbide, but this video might help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzPIUsMtUEM

Hope this helps :))
Click to expand...
Appreciate the advise. But what I'm having issues with are these acronyms like CTGP and SVJB and the like. I'll watch your video. I'm afraid I'm going to have to educate myself a lot more than I thought.
 
charles roper said:
Appreciate the advise. But what I'm having issues with are these acronyms like CTGP and SVJB and the like. I'll watch your video. I'm afraid I'm going to have to educate myself a lot more than I thought.
Click to expand...


That's inserted stuff, as I said I'm clueless on that front. The video by Tom lipton should get the basics covered.

I believe those letters are codes for what the inert is, similar to this chart http://cam.autodesk.com/docs/cncbook/en/insert_diagram.png
 
Charles, I will gladly trade my Jet 14x40 and all the insert tooling you want for your Pacemaker...lol. Seriously Pacemakers are terrific machines. Insert tooling can be intimidating for sure. You can search the charts that all the tool sellers put in there catalogs such as Enco, Travers, ect. This helps identify the inserts but you still have the task of picking the right holders. The advantage you have is your Pacemaker can utilize the inserts and holders used on production machines. My advice, check out CarbideDepot and Lathe Inserts.com. Curtis at Lathe Inserts knows his stuff and can steer you in the right direction. Most important, get yourself some 3/8 and 1/2 HSS bits and learn to sharpen them. You can do most any thing you want with HSS cutters, just slower sfm than carbide but tons cheaper and they will fit in your cxa holders without having to buy any thing else till you get some experience on that Pacemaker. Its easy to end up buying lots of fancy holders and expensive inserts only to find out you wished you had went a different direction. Ask me how I know.

Darrell
 
Charles, great question.

I am not as experienced as many on here, but recently had the same question as you. What helped me out was looking at carbide depot web site (http://www.carbidedepot.com/DynamicLanding.aspx?CategoryID=14) and looking at the actual tool holder, there a ton of them, square, round, triangle, etc, then add the type of lock you want, then the add in that is negative. It took me some time to filter out what was what, but it worked for me. I also looked at the availability of the inserts and cost. Again, there are a ton of them and it can be confusing. For me, reading all the different post and comments was more confusing as I am picture/visual type person. I did not focus on brand name, I focused on the a distributor and learned the shapes and angles.

I use both HSS blanks and grind the profile needed, I also use the tool holder with insert both negative carbide and positive HSS. Just depends on what I am doing.

It does take some education, but it is not that bad. What helped me was learning how to grind as I understood tool geometry, still learning.

I don't have numerous tool holders, a set for carbide, turning/boring/threading and a set for HSS, same thing. My turning and boring pretty much use the same inserts. If I need others, then it is job specific.

Hope it helps.
 
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