Looking for mini lathe / mini mill projects.

[Ken from ontario]

Pat, Thanks for the suggestions, I do love my drill bit organizers , have made 8 or 9 of them to hold drill bits, chamfering bit, drill/tap holders, collet holders etc, but you can never have enough organizers right,lol.

 

[Ken from ontario]

IN this post there's a picture of an offsetting tool for tailstock that Kernbigo had made, I can now see how something like that or a boring head could work:

 

[mikey]

Ken, you can also cut the MT2 with your compound slide and make the shaft for the die holder integral with the taper. You cut the straight shank part first, then the taper. You will need an already made MT2 to stick in your chuck so you can angle the compound to the match that taper. Then you cut it to dimension. This way, the tailstock is not involved and you don't need a taper attachment. For short tapers, this works just fine.

Many versions of a tool height gauge. Look at the Hardinge version for an easily made but accurate one.

 

[Ken from ontario]

Thanks mike, I believe that is the simplest way , at least for me it is, , I have already bookmarked and watched this video which shows how to machine a taper without offsetting the tailstock:

 

[Yester5]

Here are some projects I’ve completed. ..
Tailstock tap and die holder
Several small tap holders that give better “feel” than stock tap wrenches
Jig for cross drilling round stock (Hemingway kits)
Small toe clamp block that also has a cross drilling drill guide
Tooling pallet for my mini-mill

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[Hukshawn]

Here are some projects I’ve completed. ..
Tailstock tap and die holder
Several small tap holders that give better “feel” than stock tap wrenches
Jig for cross drilling round stock (Hemingway kits)
Small toe clamp block that also has a cross drilling drill guide
Tooling pallet for my mini-mill
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice knurling!

 

[Ken from ontario]

Yester, thanks for reviving this thread, I really like all the projects you showed but one in particular I'd like more info on, what does it do?

 

[Yester5]

Yester, thanks for reviving this thread, I really like all the projects you showed but one in particular I'd like more info on, what does it do?
View attachment 264630

It’s a jig that can be used on the lathe, mill or drill press to drill cross holes in round stock. The large hole on top slides on to my lathe’s tool post shaft. The stepped groove was cut on my lathe and lines up perfectly with the center of my spindle (chuck). The round stock is clamped in place and the needed drill size is held in the chuck. The carriage is then advanced to feed the drill bit through the drill guide. I believe it was designed by Harold Hall. I first saw it on his wonderful web page here:
http://homews.co.uk/page365.html
Here are some additional photos of my completed kit...the last two show a piece of stock that I cross-drilled to use as a vise handle. The last one shows the jig in use from Harold’s web page.

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[Ken from ontario]

Neat project, Harold.Hall made the body from casting cast iron, what did you use ? a square block of mild steel and machined to the final form ?
Steve Jordan, another talented youtuber who uses 2 mini lathes to do all his square machining with his lathes, I have not set up my lathe to do milling work but these types of project are very inspiring.
Thanks again for your post and the pics.

 

[Yester5]

It's cast iron. I purchased it from Hemmingway Kits: http://www.hemingwaykits.com/acatalog/_Tidy__Cross_Drilling_Jig.html
The shipping can be a killer, but current exchange rates from here in the US gave me over a 20% discount from the listed prices (in Pounds)
And, even though the kit is made to fit a Myford lathe, I made mine fit my LMS high torque mini-lathe by simply adding a 0.1875" spacer underneath to raise the stepped groove position in-line with the center of my spindle.