Made a diestock for the lathe. Big pic's dialup be warned

[Buckshot]

.............I decided I needed a diestock for the lathe. Cutting teeny threads can be a pain. And those not listed on the QC box can be spendy being required to buy extra gears for some you might only do once every other blue moon. Dies are fairly cheap, even the 'specials'.

http://www.fototime.com/C001F896798F6D1/standard.jpg

I chucked up a piece of 2-9/16" 12L14 steel for the body. In the photo I'm about to centerdrill for the live center, and begin turning down the shank portion.

http://www.fototime.com/FEE65FDDEE0D2C4/standard.jpg

The full length skim cut has been made to bring the big end to 2.5". Turning down the 2" long shank to 1.25" OD. Taking a 0.100" DOC at 0.036" IPR feed @ 400 rpms. You can see a couple chips in mid air just to the left of the bit.

http://www.fototime.com/F34191BDE735381/standard.jpg

Parting off the die body.

http://www.fototime.com/D793788100596FC/standard.jpg

Diestock body getting the end cleaned up and ready to drill and ream to 5/8" for the carrier rod.

http://www.fototime.com/864A80D8FDBE57E/standard.jpg

Diestock reversed in the chuck and getting bored out to 1.5".

.............Finished up in next post.

[Buckshot]

http://www.fototime.com/7C26A8779A27879/standard.jpg

Diestock with a die in place. D&T'd for two 1/4-20 setscrews to retain the die. Made later and not in any photos is another insert of 1-1/2 OD x 1" ID to go into the diestock to utilize 1" dies. Natually most my 1" dies are hex shaped :-).

http://www.fototime.com/E6D55144DEF0585/standard.jpg

Finish photo from the back with the guide/support rod in place. Also the diestock feed rod sticking out there at the 10 o'clock position.

I think you can buy these things for about $20 or so. Don't know what size dies they'll handle though. Took me about 2 hours including a couple coffee an smoke breaks to complete. I just decided I wanted to run the lathe making something for MYSELF :-)

................Buckshot

[redneckdan]

nicely done. I what are you running for tooling? Speeds seemed a little slow for carbide and a little high for HSS.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Thanks Buckshot!
I just scored a bucket of dies from a deceased estate, many unused!
BSF, BSW, AF, BA, Whitworth and SWG (standard wire gauge), all range from 1/8" to 1/2". Just the ticket for reparing screws from English shotguns & Martini's.

[fishhawk]

another thing you could have done is either shrink it or press into it a 1" socket so the hex dies would just slip in and out. just a thought

[Swagerman]

Buckshot, I've got to ask the usual dumb question, what is it used for. Is it a collet holder, or does it take a drill bit...how does it work on the lathe.

Sorry to be so uninformed, but your work is great stuff.

Jim

[Buckshot]

another thing you could have done is either shrink it or press into it a 1" socket so the hex dies would just slip in and out. just a thought

..........Hey, that's a great idea (why didn't I think of that :-)). I'll make another to hold a 12 pt 1" socket for those hex dies!

...........Buckshot

[45nut]

Hey Rick.. you been taking photography classes? Those are the best pics I have ever seen you post! :drinks:

[Buckshot]

Buckshot, I've got to ask the usual dumb question, what is it used for. Is it a collet holder, or does it take a drill bit...how does it work on the lathe.

Sorry to be so uninformed, but your work is great stuff.

Jim

..............It's a diestock to use in the lathe. The guide rod is held in the tailstock chuck and the material to get threaded is held in a chuck or collet on the lathes' spindle. It can sometimes be tough to get a die started straight so you end up with drunken threads. This makes it easy to do as both the work and the die are on the same axis.

To cut fine threads on small stock or in aluminum or brass especially, it is easy for the work to flex away from the cutting tool. It can hop up on top of the tool and probably break off, or nose dive under the tool. Like if you were threading stock smaller then 1/4" especially, such as #4, 6, 8, 10.

For small stuff, or making several threaded items it's faster then single point threading via the lathe. The material is turning slowly in back gear (held by a chuck or collet) and you feed the diestock head up to it. You hold the feed rod on the diestock (that piece of steel sticking out in the last photo) and the die self feeds itself. When you've threaded to the depth you want you let the feedrod go so it quits cutting. You then reverse the spindle, hold the feed rod and it backs the die off, or you just manually back the die off.

For larger OD stuff you may or may not be able to let the die self feed itself. Depending upon the material you're threading and the thread pitch. A courser pitch will be removing a lot more metal, plus you'll need to stop and back the die up to break chips more often. The only way the die will cut is while you hold the feed rod. You can lay the feedrod against the compound for example, instead of holding it. Or, once started you can lock the spindle and thread the die manually.

Say you were wanting to make a bunch of replacement screws for Lyman mould blocks, where the handles wouldn't be riding on screwthreads, and they'd hold the blocks more ridgidly? Offhand I think they're threaded 8-32. You'd have a piece of suitable stock in a chuck or collet of suitable size for the head. Then turn down the end for maybe 1/4" leaving a shoulder. Then run the diestock up and in backgear run the die up to the shoulder, let go of the feed rod and stop the lathe.

Back the diehead off, take the lathe out of backgear, re-start and turn down the balance of the length of the screw (under the head) that you need. Then part it off and do another. When they're all done use a Dremel to cut the screwslot across the head. I'd think you could make a screw a minute without any problem.

Or say you decided to make your own cleaning patches using diaper flannel (fleeced on both sides, IMHO the best there is) and your current jags are too tight. With 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2" brass rod you could rapidly make new ones for any caliber from 22 to 475 pretty quick.

..............redneckdan, " nicely done. I what are you running for tooling? Speeds seemed a little slow for carbide and a little high for HSS."

It was a carbide insert. One of those TCMT-TT on a 3/8" shank. I noticed the initial skim cut didn't look as nice as I'd have liked and found the point on the insert was deteriorated, so I rotated it around to a fresh point and finished up with it.

...............Buckshot

[Swagerman]

Thanks very much for explaining the dieholder to go into the tailstock. I'm slowly absorbing all this information, and believe me its the best type of information I've garnerd here on this Cast Boolits forum.

I will attempt to make one of the die holders myself, as I'm not very good at using a tap and die the old fashion way, they never seem very straight.

Such examples of your work, and others, is helping me to be bolder in trying new things on my lathe. Yet, I've got a heck of a long way to go to even think I can work a lathe properly, but it keeps me busy and I need something to do as I cannot get out much anymore.

Thanks again. :-D


Jim

[danski26]

Very interesting, thanks for the info buckshot

[toecutter]

That's cool!

I usually just carefully work it together with the tail stock and a wrench turned backwards (so the flat end is on the stock). You got any measurements or could you just take a picture of it taken apart? Did you put a spring in it so it will provide some pressure between the die and the workpiece?

[Buckshot]

That's cool!

I usually just carefully work it together with the tail stock and a wrench turned backwards (so the flat end is on the stock). You got any measurements or could you just take a picture of it taken apart? Did you put a spring in it so it will provide some pressure between the die and the workpiece?

.............I just made it without any real measurements in mind. I just knew I wanted to be able to hold 1.5" dies. The big end is 2.5" OD and the die holder is (naturally) 1.5" ID. The bored die reccess is 0.530" deep. The tang section is 1.25" OD and 2.5" long.

The spindle hole through the diestock tang and body is .625", so the spindle is .625" OD for 2.5" and then it's stepped down to .500" to go into the tailstock chuck (maybe an inch?).

Don't need a spring for it. The diestock slides on the spindle rod that's captured in the tailstock chuck. You bring up the tailstock so the die just clears. Then get ahold of the feedrod and run the diestock up to the workpiece turning in the chuck. When the die bites, it self feeds the die and diestock, which slides along the spindle shaft. To stop cutting threads, just let go of the feedrod and the diestock spins with the work, so it stops cutting.

Stop the spindle, grab the feedrod and rotate the diestock assembly backwards off the workpiece, or grab the feedrod and reverse the lathe spindle to back it all off.

As Fishhawk suggested, I used a 1" socket to hold the hex dies. I hung it by a piece of wire and used the torch to get it orange hot, then kept it there for a couple minutes. I had a piece of rod to go across an empty 3 lb coffee can and hung the (REALLY) hot socket down inside the coffee can to help slow down the cooling. After 2 hours it was still warm, but you could hold it.

I turned the front of the socket down to just shy of the die thickness, then reversed it and faced the back end flat. The OD of the socket was 1.327" and the ID of the diestock is 1.5" so the spacer ring is only 0.0865" thick. I'll have to take a couple photo's of it. Turned out nice and it was a great idea.

................Buckshot

[mozark]

a worthy idea. Many thanks. I'll make one this weekend.

Seems like I've been making a lot of small screws lately using a center in the tailstock to keep the play out. Which is a grand PITA.

MM

[Willbird]

If you stopped by a lathe I was making a project on BS, you wouldn't ask me "Why did you put a center in a part that short". I did get asked that a lot hehe...I figure easier on the lathe and I don't to worry about it coming out of the chuck :-).

Bill

[Buckshot]

...............Here's a couple more photo's:

http://www.fototime.com/50A882DF6A6564F/standard.jpg

Here it is set up and ready to cut some threads on a bolt I had to make.

http://www.fototime.com/2470896D03ED34A/standard.jpg

And here is the threaded, almost finished bolt. The threads are 10-32. It's so nice to use :-)! Put the lathe in back gear, stick in the die and put the guide rod in the tailstock chuck. Start the lathe, grab the feed handle and feed the diestock forward. When it begins cutting it feeds itself and I can cut 1.5" of threads with it. This bolt required a definate 'length of thread' at .320" long so the bolt was marked. At the mark let the feedrod go and the diestock spins with the work and stops cutting. Easy as pie.

Heck, single pointing I'd have to be in back gear too, and setup the thread chasing dial. Then I'd have to make about 4 light passes and a 5th to finish. With the diestock I was done and back setup normal before I could have finished single pointing! A couple weeks ago I used it to cut some 1/2-27 threads and while the feedrod was harder to hold, it wasn't a problem. Larger or coarser threads might make it a chore.

You could have the feedrod lean against the toolpost I suppose for the larger threads. However the main thing is mostly for the smaller threads and stock OD's as they're a pain to single point.

...................Buckshot