First Boring Head.

boring/facing head for future use. Use mine for more facing than I thought I would,no need to tear down and reset on the lathe. Mill becomes more useful.
I have a tree boring head(actually 2) can also bore inside and out side tapers.
 
Remembering that a PM-727 is not a Bridgeport or Kearny and Treker and my budget you guys have inspired me so far to keep looking for a used head and possibly skip the Shars or the like head if I can find something that still fits the budget. More comments are certainly welcomed!
 
Borites are very nice & good value IMO. Also, making custom tools from inexpensive offshore boring bars is a viable option especially if you happen to use the same inserts for lathe boring bars (which is what they are intended for).

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tweinke said:
Remembering that a PM-727 is not a Bridgeport or Kearny and Treker and my budget you guys have inspired me so far to keep looking for a used head and possibly skip the Shars
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I would just get a shars . Swap out the set screws and it's not too bad at all . You're never going to realize the higher accuracy of a $300+ head with a column/bench mill . Not rigid enough, play in the quill, column, table adds up. Like I said, I had a bench mill with the shars , now I have a knee mill and still use the shars . I can produce slip fits with the shars head and the dial is actually pretty accurate. I've got a few indexable bars for it now, but the cheap ones they give you work fine. I've bored cast , steel , alum . The Shars boring head is a typical Shars product. Anything i've ever got from them im happy with.
Is their stuff Criterion, Kurt, Yaesu, Sandvik, Mitutoyo ? No , but it's good stuff for the money and not far off the high priced stuff in quality.
Good luck whatever you get .
 
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With Mikey's help, I wound up getting two Criterion DBL 202B's. One was an original design with a different gib cut that is thicker,
but supposedly more difficult to adjust. I did not find that. In fact, it makes for a stronger head. Both heads are in great shape and were had for
a very good price. I also bought Borite cobalt boring bars. As Mike told me, you can regrind Cobalt bars easier than carbide.
You can't go wrong with one of those boring heads. The ball bearings and set screws can
easily be replaced, and Allied sells a hardware kit to replace these parts if needed. I think these heads will last a long time with proper care and use.
Very solid and well made.

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I've never disassembled one. Where are the ball bearings located?
 
oh, do you mean like a single bearing ball between screw & gib? I was thinking like a ball bearing race.
 
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