Well with Christmas and a trip to sunny climes out of the way,and getting back into work, I also got back to my tool post. I decided to take the large washer approach to go over the boss. Much time spent to accomplish so little. When you aren't set up everything takes soooo long. All those little bits of rod, bar, slices of pipe and so on are absolutely essential. I added a few of them to my collection. Now if I can just keep it all organized so it falls to hand when needed. If you can't find it you might as well not own it.
Any way, on to the QTP. I turned a slice of 3"dia leaded steel to the height of the boss. I then bored it to the dia of the boss. (well acutally it is about .005" too big but I won't tell if you don't.) I found an old container of Sulfo that I bought at a garage sale years ago. It really made nice cuts when applied with an acid brush.
One of the problems with the fat washer approach is that the tool holder may be too high because it rests on the washer and can't drop down far enough. In a rare moment of insight, I decided to cut a flat on the edge of the washer. I slathered some layout blue on the washer and assembled the top slide and QCTP. I used the edge of the TP to scribe a line across the fat washer. Then I scribed a short line at the dovetail. Once again I took it apart and scribed the dovetail line across the face using the first line to keep it parallel. Next step was to cut it off in my chinese band saw lifted to the vertical position.
I filed the cut edge with a Nicholson Magic File or whatever they call it. It does a very nice job of cutting and smoothing. After a couple of test fits it was nearly done except for breaking the edges of the freshly filed edges.
Next needed was to alter the bolt that was intended to screw into the block that fits into the t slot. My lathe has a dearth of t slots. I decided to drill and tap a piece of 3/4" 1018 round for the head of the bolt. I decided to buy a good tap and drove into the city to snag a Cleveland 14mm x 1.5. It cut like a hot knife throgh butter with a nice smooth finish. My motto is, "it's always cheaper and easier to do it right the first time". I acutally did so this time. Like Alice in Wonderland, I am guilty of giving myself very good advice but seldom ever following it. Once the rod was tapped, I parted it off to the same thickness as the collar on the original bolt and threaded it on with Loctite. Then I drilled a blind hole up against that "head" for the "pip" that prevents the bolt from rotating. The drill bit was a Canadian Tire cheapy which also got Loctited in place. After the Loctite hardened I cut it short with the handy dandy Dremel tool. The bolt was chucked in the lathe and the excess cut off and filed smooth. Now it was all assembled for what I hope is that last time so I can actually make something besides lathe parts. The results are seen in the photos.
Full disclosure: The bolt is actually a tad small in diameter since the original is slightly larger where it goes through the boss. It is also a little shorter than it should be. The bolt does not come all the way through the nut on the QCTP. Maybe some day when all other projects are done I will make a new one. As if.
Also the tool holder stud is too short to allow the tool holder to bottom on the top slide and still keeping both nuts on it. It shouldn't be too big a job to replace it with a longer one.
And most aggravatingly, the hole I bored through the fat washer is about .005" too big in diameter so that it isn't a nice snug fit over the boss. I don't think it will affect the operation, though.
I like the look of this change and it felt good not having to lop off the original boss. Not to mention the work it would have involved to do so.
