Multi-Purpose Mill Tool Holder

[Ray C]

Here's a small project to make a multi-purpose endmill holder. These can be used for all kinds of purposes. Here's the basic holder and in a short while, I'll make a cylindrical tool holder for it to hold a HSS bit. I'm making this today because I need to cut a gear later today.

The first part was made in the lathe but I forgot to snap a picture so, here we're just trimming the excess off in the bandsaw. Note the use of V-blocks for holding the piece. -Now you know what those are for...



Using the DRO, the centers were found. Here the weldon-flat has already been cut in the shank. That nice flat angle is used later on. I'm also milling a flat spot to prepare for boring a hole..



Hey wait... he's boring the hole off-center. Thanks for the heads-up but, yes, that is intentional. I want the hole off-center so the centerline of the HSS bit is in the center... You'll see... later today.



Now that we have that nice Weldon flat spot, it's used with a parallel block to line-up the part 90[SUP]o[/SUP] rotated so we can drill another hole.


Two more 3/8 holes were drilled in the ends coincident with the bored hole. There's also a holding screw on the side. Next, I will take a piece of round stock the same diameter of that hole then, cut it in half then, mill a 3/8 wide slot in the two halves. Then it can be inserted into the bored hole and clamped in there very securely (and yes, I need to trim those screws down a little bit).



This thing is made of 1045. I'll give it a test spin to see if it like it and if so, it will be put in the very big pile of metal waiting for heat treating. Time for lunch...

Ray

 

[Ray C]

OK, all done. First, the roundstock was squared off on all four sides in the mill just a little bit. Then it was split in the bandsaw. Two pieces of angle iron held it nicely. A piece of scrap was used to make sure it was sitting square.



The slots were milled -that was easy... And here it is all done. Notice the cutting edge is at the center of the tool. This way, you won't need to cut the bit with a lot of relief.




...NOW, I can go cut those gears -but first, #3 son has a flat tire and needs a hand...


Ray