Author Topic: Lathe Tool Height Setter  (Read 18597 times)

Offline pgp001

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 812
  • West Yorkshire - UK
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #15 on: February 20, 2016, 03:45:37 PM »
Its just barrel distortion on the camera lens. It can often happen on close up shots.
Look at how the straight lines in the background curve the opposite way in the top of the photo.

Phil

Offline sshire

  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3044
    • LS Editions
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #16 on: February 20, 2016, 04:38:50 PM »
It's you.  :lolb: The rod is dead nuts parallel to the bed. If not, my super precise, genuine Bison, made by Polish craftsmen, Set-Tru 5C collet chuck is at an angle. Highly unlikely.
It's actually a lens aberration which, if it was necessary, I could correct in Lightroom as I've created aberration formulae for all of my lenses.
« Last Edit: February 20, 2016, 07:05:38 PM by sshire »
Best,
Stan

Offline DICKEYBIRD

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 45
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #17 on: February 20, 2016, 06:20:20 PM »
"Accuracy is the sum total of your compensating mistakes."

"The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion." G. K. Chesterton

Offline Mosey

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1598
  • Rosemont, New Jersey, USA
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #18 on: February 20, 2016, 08:49:23 PM »
That is a great tool and I will likely make one too.

I presently use a simpler one that I made. It is a block with a vee in one side and a corresponding ledge on the other, both exactly aligned to a center. The exactness is a result of your work to aligned them. There is a small bubble level in the top. When the bubble is leveled, the vee is held against the cylindrical work piece in the lathe, and the ledge is sitting on the tool tip, then the tool tip is exactly on the lathe center. Easy to make, accurate, no adjustments required. To correct any discrepancies, simply screw the tool holder up or down and watch the bubble center itself.
(The rag is to hold it in place while I photo)

Mosey

Offline sshire

  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3044
    • LS Editions
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #19 on: February 21, 2016, 12:34:12 AM »
That's very nice. How about replacing the level with one of those digital levels?
Best,
Stan

Online mklotz

  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2620
  • LA, CA, USA
    • SOFTWARE FOR PEOPLE WHO BUILD THINGS!
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #20 on: February 21, 2016, 12:49:50 AM »
Stan's device allows one to set the tool precisely above or below center height, the former to account for tool deformation under load.  Doing that precisely with a level would be a lot more difficult.

I have a commercial version of Mosey's device.  Used it once; now it's a toolbox decoration.
Regards, Marv
Home Shop Freeware
https://www.myvirtualnetwork.com/mklotz

Offline sshire

  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3044
    • LS Editions
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #21 on: February 21, 2016, 01:29:51 AM »
Marv
I bought one also. In a drawer. Used a few times.
Best,
Stan

Offline kvom

  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2649
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #22 on: February 21, 2016, 02:01:28 AM »
My own technique is to face some stock and adjust until there's no center nib left.

Offline V 45

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 384
  • central PA...USA
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #23 on: February 21, 2016, 02:19:16 AM »
I had made this simple tool for setting height with lathe tools. Works very well but probably not as accurate as some with indicators. I use it all the time...
Never assume the implied task has been completed !!

Offline Pete49

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 736
  • top of the gulf SA, Gateway to the Flinders Ranges
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #24 on: February 21, 2016, 02:30:11 AM »
As my main lathe is 8x22 I used a simple method from the workshop practise series by Harold Hall. Basically a cylinder is turned with a flat base and top that sits on the cross slide and the tool tip sits under the top. Looks like 'I' with the centre of the lathe height  being the bottom of the top. Its made for the specific lathe and is simple and fast. I made mine from a scrap piece of 1.5" round rod I had and reduced the centre thickness to 1". I'll get a pic next time I go to the shed.
Pete
I used to have a friend.....but the rope broke and he ran away :(....Good news everybody I have another friend...I used chain this time :)

Offline Doc

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 868
  • USA ND
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #25 on: February 21, 2016, 05:37:05 AM »
I've used this technique for many years and if careful will get you right on every time.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpCu56O8AJ0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpCu56O8AJ0</a>

Offline sshire

  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3044
    • LS Editions
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #26 on: February 21, 2016, 12:52:07 PM »
And...these techniques all work and are "close 'enuf"

The ruler method, as Tom Lipton says, is "eyeball-centric"


Pete
Yours sounds like a variant of the Hardinge L2-A.

http://aafradio.org/garajmahal/Hardinge_L-2A_Tool_Setting_Gauge.html

Marv
Note "garajmahal"


Best,
Stan

Offline pgp001

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 812
  • West Yorkshire - UK
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #27 on: February 21, 2016, 02:40:19 PM »
I have used a home made version of the Hardinge tool for many years, in fact until today I did not even know it was a Hardinge tool. I think my dad showed me how to make one when I was a teenager.

The good thing about it is that you can use it for tools in the front toolpost as normal, but it also works just as effectively for upside down tools in the rear toolpost, ie parting tools.

Phil

Online mklotz

  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2620
  • LA, CA, USA
    • SOFTWARE FOR PEOPLE WHO BUILD THINGS!
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #28 on: February 21, 2016, 03:22:06 PM »
The (minor) problem with the ruler method is that it doesn't work very well on polygonal, or even heavily knurled, workpieces.

I use a method that is a variant of Pete's method.  I relieved the bottom of a small block of steel so it sits flat on the top of the compound.  Then I machined this block to a height such that its top surface is exactly at center height.  Push it up against the lathe tool and drag your thumbnail from tool to block or vv.  Your fingers are incredibly sensitive; you'll feel the slightest difference in height.
Regards, Marv
Home Shop Freeware
https://www.myvirtualnetwork.com/mklotz

Offline Mosey

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1598
  • Rosemont, New Jersey, USA
Re: Lathe Tool Height Setter
« Reply #29 on: February 21, 2016, 05:40:53 PM »
There are many good ideas here for me to learn from. I suspect that in a production shop you face off an end and then raise the tool until the tit goes away.
Mosey   :facepalm:

 

SimplePortal 2.3.5 © 2008-2012, SimplePortal