Quick Question: Lathe Tools and toolholders

[KevRJ]

Shop space and the expense both play a part, so my suggestion is to take a bit of time to figure it out.

The exact method will depend on the layout of your shop and the available space. I am suggesting left to right cos in my setup, right is the sweet spot for grabbing tools. but the princple I try to use is this:

Fill all your tool holders and line them up in your rack, or wherever you keep your most used tools, in what you roughly consider to be least to most used left to right. Don't leave any spare floating holders.
You may need more than one row so maybe have them in rows by holder type.

Every time you need an unmounted tool, reach for the least used (left most) tool holder suitable for the tool, and swap them out. Slide everything left to close up the gap.

Same when you need an already mounted tool, take it off the lineup and shift everything left to close the gap.

When you take a tool holder off the tool post, put it back on the right end of the lineup. I.e. the end for most recently used.

Lay your unmounted tools in the same way. Close the gap by sliding everything left. When unmounting a tool, place it on the right.

After a short while, it will truely reflect how often a tool is used, or not used, and then you can judge how many times you go to the unmounted tool drawer. Maybe only a few on the right keep coming out regularly.

Then you can decide to buy 20 more tool holders anyway!

 

[RaisedByWolves]

The multi-fix type?

Yeah it'd be nice but even AliExpress isn't cheap for those, and if a 'proper' version is required, the PeWe multi-fix set is €294 for an Aa toolpost, 2 standard tool holders and a part-off holder. Most of the holders are about €40 euros but there are some more expensive ones.

I think I'll wait until I get a lathe that deserves it.

Yeah, the chineses multi fix I got is ok. It is rigid enough, but getting the tool holders mounted in the position I want isn’t quick or simple some times.

And as mentioned moving up to the PeWe model things get expensive quick.

Guess I am going to have to have a play in that case...........

You going to try and make one? I’d like to see a thread if you decide to go that route. I would make a thread myself but too many irons and I’m not really sure what size tool post I’ll end up with.


As far as the original question, I like to have some tools set and ready to go and a couple spares for the odd occasion.


I keep a RH, LH, parting blade holder, boring bar and external threading bar mounted and a few odd tools mounted usually whatever I just last used.

 

[coolidge]

View attachment 506105

You can't write the book on indexable tooling without owning and using a lot of them. And I have a lot more than shown here.

Full details on the tool rack can be found here.

REPORTED to OHSA for backsplash safety violation, someone's going to lose an eye.

 

[coolidge]

One tool, one holder. I have 24 BXA tool holders. The Dorians hold the 3/4 shank tools, the Accusize hold the 5/8 shank.

(13) Dorian
(1) Aloris (the massive #71 parting tool)
(10) Accusize

 

[SouthernChap]

And as mentioned moving up to the PeWe model things get expensive quick.

You know what they say: the journey to Swiss via German goodness begins with a single financially unwise purchase.

 

[pontiac428]

I scoured the free world for a working supply of. FIMS/IMS/Do all #4 tool holders, and ended up sourcing quite a few. Turns out (pun intended) my working number is really only 5, and that includes redundancy (2 facing, 2 turning, and a boring bar). Parting and threading are specialty tool holders. The turning tools are redundant by tool type, just different geometry and red heat temps for alloy or steel. Anything else is floated in, it's just not a big deal to pop a bare tool in, set height on a gauge, and go. If anything, maintaining two dozen tool holders just adds clutter (like I should be one to talk!).

 

[RaisedByWolves]

You know what they say: the journey to Swiss via German goodness begins with a single financially unwise purchase.

This time you used normal words and I still don't know what you said.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Bit of a random one, but something I am mulling over / considering at the moment.

With your lathe tools, do you have a toolholder for each and every tool, or do you keep a couple of "floater" tool holders and leave some tools unmounted?

I was going through my lathe tools and was counting the amount of toolholders I would need to mount all of my tools when I stopped and wondered whether it would be better to leave the rarely used tools unmounted and keep a couple of "floater" tool holders in the drawer so that I could mount the rarely used tools only when I need them.

Am I missing something here, or am I the only one that has considered/is considering using this approach?

I have a holder for each of my standard tools and 4 or 5 floaters that I load up with non-standard tools specific to a project.

 

[GrifterGuru]

I find this very curious. I removed the compound on my PM-1340GT and replaced it with a solid tool post to get more rigidity. This means my Dorian BXA is in a fixed position, square to the CL of the spindle. Even with this setup, I very rarely feel like I need the ability to rotate the tool - and I do just about every type of turning, including threading in this configuration. For me, the only time I take off the solid tool post and reinstall the compound is to turn tapers. Minority opinion perhaps, but I'm not the only one on this forum who sees the benefits of a solid tool post outweighing the rotational flexibility of a pivoting tool holder on a compound.

@davidpbest

To be fair, on the 7x, I always keep the compound at 29.5 and do actually use the compound to feed in regularly. I did, briefly, look at a solid block, but drew the conclusion that it would remove much of the capability that I currently enjoy from the lathe when I am using it.

Yes, I swing the compound to allow the toolpost to allow working large diameter stock with a left-hand tool on the back of the Toolpost when required, which requires swinging the toolpost through 90 degrees and re-squaring once the compound is swung round enough. I have also swung the compound when working stock to turn a specific angle. It must be remembered these 7x lathes lack rearwards travel so certain "tricks" must be employed to get the most from them.

Using the compound is not necessarily about rotating the tool, it is about the ability to turn specific angles or feed in at a specific angle if/when single-point threading. Yes, I am aware of the "plunge in straight" argument for single point threading and I am not a fan of it.

As to tapers, I have a tailstock attachment for that which covers most of my immediate neeeds for now, though I am drawing up something to mount to the rear of the bed and the cross slide to allow for "full bed length" tapers.

 

[GrifterGuru]

This time you used normal words and I still don't know what you said.

@RaisedByWolves

He was basically saying (and this is my interpretation based on a similar saying) that your journey to the best via the average often starts with a waste of money on a poor tool / poor tooling.

As regards the topic of this thread, good to see I am not the only one who considers having "floater" tool holders and also that others think along similar lines.

Were it not for the Wedge Gib QCTP holders being relatively inexpensive, I dare say I would be switching tools into and out of toolholders a heck of a lot more than I currently am.