Clarkson type milling cutters

I'm sure someone else has the thread details, but you might also consider straight shank cutters, which you can simply put in your lathe chuck (or a tool post grinder chuck, if you're working the other way around).

Thanks Ken - will probably try that but feel a more positive grip may be needed - and I do have some threaded cutters!

John

...which you can simply put in your lathe chuck (or a tool post grinder chuck, if you're working the other way around).

I've read and re-read this and can't get past it. Shed some light on this old machinists dim memory.

cr3

If you've worked as a machinist in a well-equipped shop, this would make no sense whatsoever -- so don't worry, it's not brain fade.

For those of us who have worked in not such well-equipped shops, one method for making a milling machine out of a lathe is to use the lathe chuck to hold the cutter, and use the cross slide to hold the work piece. You can add a vertical slide, to make the setup more versatile (as our original poster has). If you want to mill a keyway in a shaft, you can use the lathe chuck to hold the shaft, and lock it in place with an indexing pin, and use a milling bit in a tool post grinder (provided you can set the speed right... or close enough, is more like it). Crank the longitudinal feed to feed the bit.

All this stuff works best if you keep chewing gum around to hold things together, and as a dampening medium to reduce chatter. (Ok, it's not really that bad... and the only times I've had things fly out of the chuck have been when I was doing "normal" work, a little carelessly. Just looking at some of this jury-rigged stuff is enough to cause certain fear -- and that makes you work more carefully.)

I have even mounted the tailstock of a lathe from the inverted table of my drill press, (crudely extending the bed) to be able to turn a 4' long piece (in an area about a foot from the chuck) on a lathe that ordinarily will hold something not much more than 2' long. If there was any taper, it was unmeasurable with an ordinary mic reading to .001.

I dug around a bit and could not find the thread data.

If it were me I would just measure the male side and obtain from that. Unfamiliar with the female end (it's been a while) I believe it too small to pull a latex profile off of.

Thats what I would do.

Perhaps the rest of the gang can offer a bit more help.

cr3

As near as I can tell, the threads are 20tpi Whitworth, although UNC is close substitute.

There you go. And you have a lathe, so get at it.

Not only do I have a lathe, from today it has a vertical slide, so yes! I'll get at it - thanks!

Whitworth!! The name alone makes me want to scream. I used to have a full set of US standard wrenches, and a set of Witworth, and a set of BS, and a set of metric! That I was able to net any income, given the investment in tools, is amazing.

....I still have mine.

Using them I have repaired a few old British sports cars from the 50's and 60's and set up some SUs and Strombergs, it got me quite a nice reputation here!! But no cash!!

Very few people have British size wrenches, or even AF stuff in Germany.....

In Australia we suffer terribly at the hands of cultural imperialists. This means that when I was an apprentice at sea I had to have tools of every flavour known to man. It also meant a lot of tool boxes to sort through to discover that you didn't have the correct spanner. This is a real joy when you have to slide in and out of the bilges over hot steam lines every time you get it wrong. As a consequence I got quite good with a hammer and cold chisel and making up spanners the right size, shape and length to do the job.

When I came ashore I did an apprenticeship as a toolmaker but the experience of having to improvise to achieve the aim with only what you had has always stayed with me. Using the tool post and vertical slide for milling operations was standard practice. With a 4 Jaw chuck off setting a single point cutter you had a fly cutter or you could mount an end mill in the 3 Jaw self centring.

Another good trick was to use the 4 Jaw chuck and tailstock to support the part, mount a grinder on the tool post and use the feed screw to traverse backwards and forwards to use the lath as a surface grinder. The trick was to make sure the first driver gear for the lathe chuck was disconnected from the drive train and locked in place.

The fashion here with end mills is to have just a plain shaft this way you can side step the metric imperialist conflict.

There use to be an English model engineering magazine, I think it was called "Model Engineer" that had many articles on making your own tools for a home workshop and how to adapt what you had to produce what ever you wanted. I know there were sets of plans there on end mill tool holders of various descriptions.

If you have a lathe, a forge and some patience all manner of machining things are possible.

(The patients mentioned above also applies to the machinist's wife.)

With a 4 Jaw chuck off setting a single point cutter you had a fly cutter or you could mount an end mill in the 3 Jaw self centring.

That's one I've never done, but it makes great sense!

Well I'll be.

Oops. The one I have not done is the single point cutter as fly cutter. The other I do frequently.

Where do you get your info from the UK is predominantly shanks without threads ie weldon whistle notch and plain cylindrical shanks

Clarkson style is 20 TPI whitworth form ie 55°

http://homepages.tesco.net/~A10bsa/bswgo.htm might come in handy for the new metalbasher?