A small parting off tool holder

[Chipswitheverything]

At the Guildford show I was lucky to pick up the Model Engineer volume for 1976, I only had a few odd copies of that year.  In this volume, Geo. H Thomas has written up his notes and tooling for parting off, and among the designs is a very neat tool holder for 3/16" dia. shank small parting tools.  Intended mainly for the four way toolpost, the angled bore gives the tool toprake and facilitates setting to centre height.

  I have made one of these little gadgets during the last couple of afternoons  ( 85 degrees F. in the workshop! ), made a nice filler in project and should be handy.
Nothing much to the making process, so didn't bother with photos.  Sawed it initially from some 1" by 1/2" BMS, didn't have anything handier...
  I case hardened the tool, my small propane torch struggled a bit to get the heat in but I got a useful amount of extra hardness beyond leaving it as BMS.
The parting tools are from silver steel, h+t to light straw.   I milled the shapes in the dividing head to put the clearances on, but filing might have been as quick.  Might make a few narrower ones later...

Dave

[Jo]

That looks useful 

Have you thought of recycling broken off small centre drills as HSS tooling for use in it Dave 

Jo

[Chipswitheverything]

Hi Jo, thanks for your comment.
 The centre drill re-use would certainly work well in this holder:  I'm bound to have a few discards, like we all have ...     Or for that matter, 3/16" round HSS bits suitably shortened.
 I've had good results from making/ using small silver steel boring tools a la GHT's designs, with the shanks turned eccentric leaving a head to file up and harden, so I thought I'd give these little S/ steel parting tools a try.

Dave

[K.B.C]

Hi Dave,
Thanks for posting your small parting tool, it's given me some ideas on making a better one than I have , the problem being on very short screwed items is getting into undercut the thread as the tool holder was hitting the chuck.
Thanks for the idea.

George.

[mikemill]

For a fine width parting blade worn hacksaw blade work well,  sandwiched  between standard blade and the holder. Just grind a top and front angle and away you go.

Mike

[JR72]

Hi Dave
Very useful tools to go with the small tooling you already have, very handy for parting off some items like drain cocks, as you know I have already made the holder so when I need a break from the Kiwi I will have a go at this to add to my set. Don`t forget if two propane torches would do the heating better than one you know where to borrow one.
Looking forward to your next post, always very interesting, could it be the steam hammer?

All the best see you soon

John