Lately, my "play" time is when it's dark, cold, and late, but I do get to play

1. Work holder: http://frederic.midimonkey.com/yard/...r/IM002137.JPG

I haven't made a milling attachment yet but I needed to mill something really quick at a 41 degree angle off perpendicular to the end of the end mill, so I made this "adapter" which goes into my aloris boring bar holder, and bolted the part I needed to mill to the flat surface I milled. Since there was going to be a bolt hole on the part anyway, this worked. Having this thing in the boring bar holder allows me to rotate the part 360 degrees.

2. BXA Tool Post Thingy: http://frederic.midimonkey.com/yard/...a/IM002142.JPG
http://frederic.midimonkey.com/yard/...a/IM002143.JPG

My lathe has an aloris tool post, which if you're not familiar with allows you to stick lathe cutters into the tool holders, then quick change them while you work on your project. My lathe came with the tool post as well as some holders, but I wanted to make a drilling holder as well as a tool post grinder, so this is the start of both those projects. See? I milled nice dovetails into the 3" square block to fit onto the toolpost. And, it stays put!

3. 5/8" End Mill Holder: http://frederic.midimonkey.com/yard/...g/IM002145.JPG

I've made a few of these before, essentially it's a morse taper #2 shank with a wider diameter head, with a 9/32" hole bored in the center, then reamed to 5/8" for a clean, round hole. Unfortunately the last few I made ended up wobbling as either the taper was off or the taper had cuts and grooves which didn't allow it to sit nicely inside the MT2 adapter in my headstock. This one came out really nice if I may say so. Only one minor scratch in the taper. I also drilled and tapped the tail of the MT2 taper for my homemade drawbar so it can't work loose with my expensive dovetail cutter installed.

4. Steady Rest: I just started, so there isn't much progress yet, but I did managed to machine the underbed plate, which is nothing more than a huge "T" nut: http://frederic.midimonkey.com/yard/...t/IM002140.JPG

Then I milled a 45 degree cut along the bottom of the piece that will sit on top of the bed, like so: http://frederic.midimonkey.com/yard/...t/IM002141.JPG

And you can see it fits nicely on my Clausing's bed: http://frederic.midimonkey.com/yard/...t/IM002144.JPG

It's actually square to the headstock and bed, amazingly enough! Next is to drill two holes through the top piece, and into the bottom piece (the big "T" nut), and tap the bottom piece holes so they can be bolted together. Then I can start fabricating the remainder of the steady rest.

 

Frederic, you are having ENTIRELY too much fun! Using that bridgeport is cheating tho...

 

The bridgeport is in liu of having a milling attachment for my lathe at this time.

I'll get some time on it again on Friday... and I'll be making another aloris tool holder blank (smaller than the first one), as well as a pair of longer, mating dovetails out of two 1" plates... hopefully making a simple slide. And then drill/tap one side and insert a piece of steel as a tightener, so I can make the slide of the milling attachment.