QCTP holder

[Old Rivers]

Very interesting thread. I, too am contemplating buying a AXA QCTP for my 10" Atlas TH-42.
One question I have is re. the "hump" in the compound casting, behind the tool post mounting area. Will this hump interfere with mounting the AXA? What is good practice - shim up the AXA base using a large flat washer, or relieve (mill) the hump ?

Bill

 

[Dabbler]

For my AXA, I just made a new T nut that fit to the 1/2 thou. it works fine. I wouldn't mess with the late to make it fit.

 

[DiscoDan]

Old Rivers, I have no hump in mine.

 

[FarmDad]

I used a belt sander and 80 grit to remove the hump from the area the toolholder base sets . I was able to feather the grind back into the original shape enough that it doesnt look too bad .

ETA

Also an Atlas 10 inch .

 

[Bi11Hudson]

As usual, slow and well behind the curve... That's my normal state of affairs.

I have both a Craftsman 12X36 (101.27440) and a 9X19 Grizzly. (G1550 / G4000) Both have AXA tool holdders, the tooling being interchangable, except for height. One AXA is a Shars, the other I don't know. And I'm not going over to the shop to find out. Both holders are wedge type. The AXA is a perfect fit, for my application. Fitting both machines and being of lower cost for additions. Usually, I do fairly small (<2") work. I commisioned the Craftsman because I got into cutting the disk off of disk brakes. I had a use for the hubs. The disks were too large for the Griz.

The Craftsman may be a "Commercial" version, I honestly don't know. I was told the "Norton" threading box was only used a couple of years (51-52) on that model. That may be an indicator, for anyone that really cares. I don't.

The studs and T-nuts for both were fitted to the machines. Turning down the solid end to the appropriate size and adjusting the T-nuts to a smooth fit. In neither case do I remember the starting size, just that I had to mill a whisker off the T-nuts that I used to fit just so.

The horizontal mill (Atlas MFC) does not use a tool post but; I found a source for 3/8 square headed bolts that were a perfect fit to the T-slots, with the exception of being a little shy on the bottom. They were too small to use on one lathe and too large for the other one. I bring it up merely as a reference.

Bill Hudson​

 

[welderr]

If you have the milling attachment it is a simple job , you just mount the compound in place of the milling vice and mill it down for clearance

 

[jdedmon91]

Crapola....after messing with it for a bit and considering the t nut I would need I realized that the main bolt/stud (not sure if it has an official name) is 5/8" but the slot in the cross slide is also 5/8". The only way this will work is if I open up the slot. I looked on the Shars site since they have detailed measurements of the tool holders and even they don't say what the main bolt/stud size is. What is everyone doing to solve the issue? Widening the slot?

I looked at the other posts, so my suggestion has some thought. Make a T nut to fit the slot, then make a stud up that uses the smaller thread on the compound side to thread into the stud, locktite the stud in. That way you have the support you need in the compound and the screw fits in properly


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[wa5cab]

wa5cab, I may eventually get to agree with you. Can you tell me the size of your AXA center bolt? From the bit of research I did last night it appears that it would only be 1/16 smaller than my 5/8 bolt, which wouldn't really leave enough meat for a t nut in my 5/8 slot. I appreciate your input.

Dan,

The stud diameter that came with my Yuasa years ago is 9/16"-18 UNF. 9/16" is about a quarter MM larger than M14.

The T-Nut is a slip fit into the T-slot both vertically and horizontally. I didn't measure the length of the T-nut but looking at it, it is at most a 32nd of an inch under the distance through the slot. Makes it easy to consistently center up the TP on top of the compound slide.

I don't understand the statements "If you use AXA, the holders will always (be?) at the top position" and "no big room for the cutters up down adjustment". Several have made the first one, which is an optical illusion and which is misleading. The BXA holders are taller than the AXA. But the top of the cutters must in the case of 99% or all cutters always be at the same distance above the top of the ways because the cutter must be on center. The elevation of the spindle in the headstock above the ways is not adjustable except on a horizontal mill. The second statement is misleading, probably deliberately so. CDCO naturally don't want to see anyone whom they try to talk into buying the BXA (or CXA or DXA) deciding to go with the less expensive (from now on) next smaller size. The vertical adjustment must only be sufficient to get the cutter on center. If it will do that (in either case), then it is sufficient, regardless of what it seems to look like.

One other unrelated consideration is that several people have used the term "bolt" instead of "stud". They may not have actually meant "bolt" which means a threaded rod with a fixed position head (regardless of the type or shape of the head). If for any reason one absolutely must use a bolt, you have to very carefully adjust the length so that it is impossible to make the tip of the bolt touch the bottom of the slot. As little as 0.010" too long will eventually result in the failure of the top of the compound. The stud should be screwed into the T-nut until it raises the T-nut off of the bottom of the slot and against the top of the slot. Then unscrew it half a turn. The shouldered nut on top must be free-running on the threads so that it does not rotate the stud while torquing it. If it insists upon doing so, back the stud out another half turn.

 

[wa5cab]

I will add one more comment - if for some reason (maybe someone gave you a shoe-box full of them) you need to be able to run a 1/2" square cutter or cutter holder, you can now buy AXA holders made to take a 1/2" square bar with the top at the same elevation as a 3/8". And as is the case with the normal AXA holders and 1/2" square bars, you can physically squeeze in a 5/8" square bar. They are called "XL". At the moment, the only thing that I find on eBay are 102 XL. But they did offer last year a 101 XL as I bought one right after they first showed up.

 

[Round in circles]

It came today! Very quick shipping.

View attachment 273325

You may find it prudent to purchase a couple of dozen tool holder high tensile precision set screws .. Several of mine in the spare tool holders turned out to be made of Chinese liquorice that was neither metric or imperial sized . Resulting in the Allen key tearing out the hexagonal cups as I tightened them down on the cutting tools .

Both set screws in the boring bar holder part of the bar holder sheared off long before the clamp was tight enough to stop my boring bar rotating when I was using it to bore out a 3 inch deep by 2 " dia hole in mild steel . despite my ensuring there was a clearance to grip the 19 mm bar that was supposedly to be used. You have to rotate align the cut in the sleeve with the slot of the tool holder too , mine as almost 90% out of alignment , luckily I spotted the problem before trying to tighten it up . I also had to use a thin angle grinder blade & grinder to open the cut up in the sleeve to give more clamping movement .