Some recent additions to the shop..
Haas had a really good special going on their tool pre-setter and shrink fit machine a while back. Ended up being 30% off, and 20 tool holders thrown in to sweeten the deal.
The pre-setter is pretty slick. It measures tool diameter and length. The diameter is particularly interesting for me. I don't really have a way to check things on diameters due to the nature of tooling and the limited amount of measuring tools I have. In addition to diameter and length it can also do things like tell you when insert in a shell mill is the lowest, etc. This integrates really well with their latest control. Not a thing for me today, but I like the possibilities. Should be a big timesaver, as well as improve the quality of the parts I'm making along the way.
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The shrink fit machine has an induction heater to heat up a shrink fit tool holder. It expands, the tool is dropped in, and then the machine uses an air blast to cool the holder off. The clamping force a lot higher than collet holders, the runout is very low, and they fit in small pockets because of the small nose diameter.
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I went with the shrink fit machine because of their promo. I’m excited to get this stuff in service.
I’ve had a Jet JBG-8 8” bench grinder since 2009 or so. I have always used it with a deburring wheel and a wire wheel. The grinder has always felt underpowered and easy to stall out when leaning into the wire wheel. I’ve looked at upgrades a few times this year. Always after a big deburring session on plasma cut parts. Turns out Jet makes two lines of bench grinders. Mine is the lighter duty offering. Generally speaking, I want higher quality tools than Jet offers. With that said, I have no complaints about the lighter duty grinder I have. I’ve read good things about the more industrial offerings.
I spent way too much time looking at bench grinders, and wire wheels. In the end I couldn’t justify $6k or more on a new Baldor. Home Depot’s 10% veteran’s discount put the 12” Jet Industrial bench grinder and stand within the budget.
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The Jet industrial grinder does not dissapoint. It's doing a great job for me!
Then.. Haas Tooling had another one of their f'ing sales!
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The two boxes top center and top right I already had, the rest of the pin gauges, pin gauge holders, setup blocks, and all the thread gauges came from the Haas sale. Came in right at half price. At some point I'd like to get pin gauges up to 1". Can't complain, just tends to hit the checkbook kinda hard
A guy advertised a new in the box Atlas collet chuck. It's a modern copy of the Hardings Sjogren style. A 2J version came with my Pacemaker. These are really nice for collet work. Much better than a draw bar style collet closer for my Acra lathe. On the Acra the lever bears on the belt cover which is made of fiberglass. It's bound to crack or break with a lot of use. Anyway the advertised new chuck was not near the "you'll never see a better deal" he advertised. This got me back on ebay looking at used. A couple of low ball best offers and I ended up with a 2J and a 5C version for the Acra. For much less than the so called good deal. The 2J is in great shape and ready to put in work.
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The 2J collets go up to 1-3/8. I have a set in sixteenths up to 1-3/8. I have a very comprehensive collection of 5C collets, so it's not all lost having a 5C version as well. I think it needs a bath in evaporust. Or maybe just a disassemble and trip through the ultrasonic. The action is smooth and threads are in good shape. I really like the older style metal hand wheels.
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Pretty much the only way I can ensure that in the future I will order the best fitting hook for each tool. Couple of hooks are missing from the list, because I already own them.
