Parting

[epanzella]

Originally Posted by SE18 View Post

I don't have a bandsaw either and I use parting, usually but not always without too much problem. I'm very curious about how you eliminated the compound slide and made tool post mounted directly on the cross slide. This seems to make a lot of sense as one less thing to vibrate or wiggle. Perhaps you have a link to your work. I don't want to hijack this thread but it really is related and sounds like a good setup

Unfortunately it was years ago and I no longer have that lathe or pictures of the toolpost, but I can describe it as it was pretty simple. It was my first lathe so I signed up for a night machining course at a local tech school. They had a bunch of Bridgeports and lathes. Once I felt comfortable running my lathe I realized it's shortcomings compared to the night school machines. The final exam was to build anything we wanted (you couldn't fail the course if you wanted to) so I decided to build a toolpost to go in place of the compound. My compound was held on by a center thru-bolt that had a tapered circular piece on the bottom that went into a receptacle and was secured by a pin pushed in by a capscrew on the side of the x-slide. I found a 4 inch cube of steel in the scrap bin so I cut a slot 1.5 inches tall and 3/4 deep on one side. I tapped the top for long setscrews to hold the old style tooling from my lantern post. On the other side a cut a slot for a cutoff tool and milled a retainer that tightened down on it. The center of the block was drilled thru to use the original bolt that held the compound. The final piece started as a one inch thick slab of steel that was 4 inches wide and 6 inches long. I milled a long slot down the center and then milled the one inch thickness on a taper so I had a 4x6 inch piece that was 1 inch thick on one end and tapered to 3/4 inch thick on the other end. This piece was to go between the tool block and the cross slide so as to be able to slide back and forth for a fine height adjustment. The course adjustment was done by just piling up lathe tools and what not. With the fat end of the plate towards the work it added positive rake and when turned 180 degrees it produced some negative rake. Simple and crude but the added rigidity really improved that worn out old Logan.

UPDATE:
I didn't think I had any pictures but my wife was rummaging thru some old family photos and came across a shot of my Logan with the toolpost mounted sans compound rest. I was making a short driveshaft for a 4WD Van conversion.
Ed P

 

[SE18]

thanks, Ed, pretty slick. Must bring back some memories for you. I'll add that project to my growing list.