Tool Holders? Anybody used these?

[WobblyHand]

I received the four Labwork 250-101 tool holders this week. All are acceptable for my purposes. Fit and finish is generally good. One had set screws that were a bit gritty but blowing out with compressed air fixed that. The set screw thread fit is a bit loose but acceptable considering the intended purpose. The floor of the tool slot is .440" above the bottom. This is a problem for 1/2" insert tooling on my G0602 lathe as the spindle centerline is .929" above the compound. This is fairly common for AXA tool holders as the nominal height is 7/16" or .437". Shars 250-101 tool holders typically measure .428". If using 12mm insert tooling, it will squeak by at .912"

At these kind of prices, I wouldn't think twice about shaving off a couple of thousandths off the bottom to make it fit. Either mill it off, or use a four jaw on the lathe and turn off the bottoms a hair. I didn't check mine for fit for 1/2" tooling, mostly because I don't have many 1/2" shank tools. If I need to bring my insert 1/2" threading tool to center on one of these holders, I'll just shave off the bottom. Once you have done it to a $100 tool (Alorix AXA-8) holder to make it work, doing it to an $8.54 holder is not very traumatic.

 

[MrWhoopee]

After building about a dozen of my retractable threading tools from scratch, I decided it made more sense to re-design them using OTS tool holders. The finished holders are cheaper than the raw 4140HT stock I'd been using. I have purchased two or three batches of AXA and BXA holders, based solely on price. I did receive one batch with the bottom of the tool slot incompletely machined, which left a ramp at the end of the slot where the tool would be. I notified the seller, who gave me a complete refund and let me keep the holders. It was a real bonus since I was machining out the slot anyway. In all other respects they have all been acceptable.

All this talk about things costing more in Canada reminds me of something my father (an attorney) used to say.

Q: Why are divorces so expensive?
A: Because they're WORTH it!

 

[DavidR8]

Just received my holders. Except for the missing Accusize logo they look, feel and fit exactly like my Accusize holders.