Repurposing part for a floating tailstock die holder
Had this left over from part of the repair work on my mill. Will probably use it again for the same job in the distant future, but until then I thought I'd give a new lease of life as a floating tailstock die holder.
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I happened to have some round steel bar that was just a shade larger in diameter than the ID of the "cup" so all it needed was a skim to bring it to a slide fit. I then drilled out the centre to 12mm and bored a seat for 1" dies.
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Once that was done, I chanced a bit of milling on the lathe to cut a slot in the side of the die holder (I'm still somewhat underequipped in the work/tool holding department for my mill). As I had predicted, she struggled a little with that job as the metal appears to be case hardened to about 1/4" deep, but got there in the end.
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I then measured, drilled and tapped an M5 hole for locking the dies in place with a grub screw and gave it a whirl.
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I've been wanting one of these for ages and I'm quite pleased with the results, despite it being a little rough around the edges :)