Sherline Lathe QCTP Advice

[mickri]

I have a norman qctp that I made. Not hard to make. All you need is your lathe and a drill to make one. Here is a thread on how to make one.

Norman Style QCTP

I have been using my Norman style QCTP and have sorted out the problems that came up through use. Instead of placing my findings at the end of the very long thread on making it I thought that it would be better to put everything in one place. First off you have to measure the distance from the...

www.hobby-machinist.com

 

[MelBrooksKA]

I've made some tool posts like the standard Sherline one, but from steel (I had assumed the Sherline ones were, but now I'm pretty sure they're aluminum). When tightened to the cross slide they cause it to bind up a little bit. Not enough to stop it from moving, but it makes it noticeably harder to turn the cross slide handwheel. I don't know if this is from the steel warping the aluminum cross slide minutely, just from its weight, or because I messed up something when making the tool posts. Notably I'm using normal t-nuts, not the extended t-nuts Sherline usually has in their tool posts, and maybe that's the issue. But from that experience I'd recommend aluminum

For all its faults I can at least say the tool post is steel

 

[FZR1KG]

Not sure why you couldn't fit the OXA QCTP on the Sherline. I bought one years ago and fitted it to mine. The only thing that was different was the mounting bolt.
To be honest though, the Sherline tool holder that came with the lathe was more rigid, not having that overhang.
I have no experience with the Sherline QCTP so can't comment there.

To fix the rigidity issue I milled some 7075 to hold the toolpost with two T-nuts onto the cross slide. Served me well for several years. Far better than the aluminium QCTP I bought cheap that it replaced.

 

[Aaron_W]

Not sure why you couldn't fit the OXA QCTP on the Sherline. I bought one years ago and fitted it to mine. The only thing that was different was the mounting bolt.
To be honest though, the Sherline tool holder that came with the lathe was more rigid, not having that overhang.
I have no experience with the Sherline QCTP so can't comment there.

To fix the rigidity issue I milled some 7075 to hold the toolpost with two T-nuts onto the cross slide. Served me well for several years. Far better than the aluminium QCTP I bought cheap that it replaced.

OXA can be used but it is too big for comfortable use on some operations. It also requires an adaptor, Little Machine Shop sells one.