Tap and Die Holder for lathe

[PremalChheda]

Just got one of these holders and had a good conversation with the maker Mr. Butterfield. I am going to try it out this evening.

http://www.nbutterfield.com/Pages/Tails ... older.aspx

[LAH]

Let us know how it does!




Abe

[PremalChheda]

Just threaded a couple delrin tenons and vulcanite rods. Works like a charm. I am going to try some aluminum next. I will also be using this device with a dead center as a guide for hand drilling. I think I may use it for simple drilling procedures as well once I make an adapter for a jacob's chuck.

[caskwith]

What is the intended use of this for pipe making?

I tap and thread a fair bit on my lathe but it is never for pipe making, always for other projects or homemade tooling.

[PremalChheda]

What is the intended use of this for pipe making?

I tap and thread a fair bit on my lathe but it is never for pipe making, always for other projects or homemade tooling.

I got the holder for use on metals primarily for making arbors, special bolts and nuts, etc..

For pipemaking I may use it for:
1. Threading delrin tenons
2. Guiding Stummel for Hand drilling
3. Some hand drilling of repetive operations

I have been using the lathe for only pipemaking the last few years, and after learning all of the capabilities of what a metal lathe can do, I decided I mine as well start utilizing it.

[KurtHuhn]

That is spectacular. I hadn't even thought of a sliding grip - it makes perfect sense. I'm going to use that idea and put something similar together for my own tap/die setup that I made.

[e Markle]

That's a cool idea. I picked up this turret for my lathe a few months back, and it came with a number of dies, but I essentially put them aside as I was mostly interested in the ability to switch out different drill bits and live centers more easily. This makes me think I need to use those dies too.

[KurtHuhn]

What's your impression of that turret, Ernie? I was looking at it, but got scared by the low price (you get what you pay for...).

[e Markle]

What's your impression of that turret, Ernie? I was looking at it, but got scared by the low price (you get what you pay for...).

I hear ya.

We just moved (twice), and I haven't had much experience with it yet. It seems pretty solid though. It's really nice having all my bits right there. The only thing that initially concerned me was that there is a small amount of rotation along the axis of the MT shank (and consequently the tool itself). It's very slight, and I don't see how it could be negative, but...

[caskwith]

Fair do's if you have uses for it brilliant, can never have too many tools. I am guilty of having far too much stuff for my lathe unrelated to pipe making. I have 3 axis dro's i fitted myself and I am just finishing up a variable speed power feed that is independent of the main drive of the lathe, last year I made a tool post grinder and I also just finished adapting a live chuck for the tailstock that could be used in a similar manner to your tap and die holder.
Of all these mods probably the only one that see's regular use (and proved to be a real bonus) is the cross slide DRO.


Ernie and Kurt, i looked into one of those tailstock turrets, a friend of mine has one and I asked him about the accuracy and he said the best he could get was about 0.1mm, fine for most purposes i am sure but not enough for drilling mortises. My solution to having tools quick to hand has been to buy more chucks and fit certains tools like centre drills to their own dedicated arbour. This way if I am doing lots of repetitive work I can set up chucks with the bits I need ready for fast changing though i rarely have need for this.

[PremalChheda]

I looked at and tested one of those Turrets up close at a local machine shop, and it seemed to me that I could change a bit in a keyless jacobs chuck just as fast, or close to turning the turret. I would be worried about alignment as well. However, if I could modify one of these to fit my lathe bed, or find a similar one at a low price I may go for it:

http://www.downrivertools.com/MkI-Turret.html

[Alden]

I looked at that turret to. I figure there is not much space on my 9x20 lathe already and I dont need a pincushion full of pointy drill bits to work around too.
I found new 3/8" and 5/8" jacobs chucks with arbors on Ebay for around $15 each when you buy several of them. I thought that was a heckuva deal. I have 9 of them now.

[e Markle]

I looked at that turret to. I figure there is not much space on my 9x20 lathe already and I dont need a pincushion full of pointy drill bits to work around too.
I found new 3/8" and 5/8" jacobs chucks with arbors on Ebay for around $15 each when you buy several of them. I thought that was a heckuva deal. I have 9 of them now.

That's a fair point, I do place the live center out, otherwise yikes.

Are those like quick change chucks? Rotating that turret is really fast - just press the release and turn.

[Alden]

Just regular jacobs chucks/drill chucks. I like a bunch of them because I hate having one or two chucks and switching out drill bits between them. This way I have 10 different drill bits in their own chucks, just pull one chuck out of the tailstock, stick the next chuck in and its ready to drill.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/120937498173?ss ... 1497.l2649
Shipping price goes down if you order multiples of the same item. They have tons of other sizes too, but they dont combine shipping discounts for seperate auctions.

[caskwith]

I think Alden has got the right idea, a reasonably priced chuck will have better accuracy than a cheap turret and be as quick to change as rotating the turret. The main things that I didn't like about the turrets was all the drill bits sticking out everywhere, have bumped drill bits before with my hands and suffered some serious cuts.