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- Jan 4, 2021
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OK, this should have been posted back in early 2021 when I did the work, but I never got around to it. Since I didn’t take photos of all of the machining setups I couldn’t submit it as an article for publication (and I wasn’t doing videos at the time), so you’ll just have to visualize the setups:
I had purchased a very affordable ($35, now $37) 2MT Tailstock Die Holder (on eBay, made in India) for my Mini-Lathe. It was well made, didn’t have any burrs or grunge, and the only problem with it was that the handle didn’t have any way to tighten it into the body (fixed that pretty quickly by milling some flats, photo at end).
There was one other issue: while the Die Holder supported 13/16”, 1”, 1-5/16” & 1-1/2” round dies, it didn’t support my 1” Hex Dies (and no, these aren’t re-threading dies; back in the 60’s & 70’s these were very common – the ChemE Department Toolmaker used them, too). I found several approaches on YT (like this one, starting at 2:20),
and started a search for an appropriate donor die stock:
Top is my original Craftsman Die Stock, middle is a used Craftsman from eBay, and the bottom one was also found on eBay. The OD of the bottom one wasn’t sufficient to fit the 1-1/2” Round Holder after being cleaned up, so it went into my collection of Tap & Die tooling:
I choose the eBay Craftsman since my original is like-new, removed the “centering” mechanism exposing the back of the hex (which will need to be faced):
then removed the pressed-in “wings” and cut the cast handles off using the band saw (and, "Yes," I saved all the extras – came across them today, which is one reason I'm posting):
To turn the OD of the adapter, I sawed off a short piece of 12L14 1” hex bar, deburred the cut edges, clamped it in the 3-jaw chuck and faced the end. I then placed the (soon to be) hex adapter over the 1” hex bar and pressure turned the OD until it was 95% cleaned up (OD was now square to the back face of the hex and reasonably coaxial):
I was then able to grasp the OD and face the back of the (almost) adapter:
Took it over to the Mini-Mill, clamped it in the vise with the tapped die retaining hole up, aligned the hole and centered it under the spindle then drilled it to 1/4” to clear the retaining set screw in the die holder:
Of course, the 1-1/2” die holder was actually a little oversize, and I had to take the hex adapter down a little below 1-1/2” to get it to (mostly) clean up, so I added a brass shim to the ID of the die holder (gave me a chance to use my mini rolling machine):
Dropped the Hex Adapter into the Die Holder, tightened to two “outside” retaining set screws, replaced the stock “center” retaining set screw with a longer one, et voilà:
I can now use all of my dies.
The modified set in its new home (note the flats on the handle):
I had purchased a very affordable ($35, now $37) 2MT Tailstock Die Holder (on eBay, made in India) for my Mini-Lathe. It was well made, didn’t have any burrs or grunge, and the only problem with it was that the handle didn’t have any way to tighten it into the body (fixed that pretty quickly by milling some flats, photo at end).
There was one other issue: while the Die Holder supported 13/16”, 1”, 1-5/16” & 1-1/2” round dies, it didn’t support my 1” Hex Dies (and no, these aren’t re-threading dies; back in the 60’s & 70’s these were very common – the ChemE Department Toolmaker used them, too). I found several approaches on YT (like this one, starting at 2:20),
and started a search for an appropriate donor die stock:
Top is my original Craftsman Die Stock, middle is a used Craftsman from eBay, and the bottom one was also found on eBay. The OD of the bottom one wasn’t sufficient to fit the 1-1/2” Round Holder after being cleaned up, so it went into my collection of Tap & Die tooling:
I choose the eBay Craftsman since my original is like-new, removed the “centering” mechanism exposing the back of the hex (which will need to be faced):
then removed the pressed-in “wings” and cut the cast handles off using the band saw (and, "Yes," I saved all the extras – came across them today, which is one reason I'm posting):
To turn the OD of the adapter, I sawed off a short piece of 12L14 1” hex bar, deburred the cut edges, clamped it in the 3-jaw chuck and faced the end. I then placed the (soon to be) hex adapter over the 1” hex bar and pressure turned the OD until it was 95% cleaned up (OD was now square to the back face of the hex and reasonably coaxial):
I was then able to grasp the OD and face the back of the (almost) adapter:
Took it over to the Mini-Mill, clamped it in the vise with the tapped die retaining hole up, aligned the hole and centered it under the spindle then drilled it to 1/4” to clear the retaining set screw in the die holder:
Of course, the 1-1/2” die holder was actually a little oversize, and I had to take the hex adapter down a little below 1-1/2” to get it to (mostly) clean up, so I added a brass shim to the ID of the die holder (gave me a chance to use my mini rolling machine):
Dropped the Hex Adapter into the Die Holder, tightened to two “outside” retaining set screws, replaced the stock “center” retaining set screw with a longer one, et voilà:
I can now use all of my dies.
The modified set in its new home (note the flats on the handle):
