Small box tools

Here’s a couple box tools I made to use with my little bed and tailstock lathe turrets for taking deeper and more accurate cuts off the diameter than with regular knee tools on relatively long and thin workpieces. They’re basically copied from pictures of existing designs, mostly Levin and Somma.

Like on those the cutter is held more or less tangential to the work, opposite two adjustable supports set back a little to bear against newly cut surfaces. The larger of the two uses hardened rollers in screw adjustable blocks that are held in with dovetails, while the smaller one uses toolbits ground at opposing angles. Both have floating shanks, partly so I can replace them with others for different applications.

They work okay - they’re kind of hard to adjust but that may be just me.

The smaller tool is about 1-1/2” x 15/16” - it uses a 3/16” cutter and 1/8” back rests, and will pass up to about 1/4” work through the body. The bigger one is about 2” x 1-1/4”, uses a 1/4” cutter and passes 5/16”. Both have the tools tilted with 7° side cutting angle as well as front and side clearance, and use 40tpi adjusting screws.

Attachment 32880 Attachment 32881

Attachment 32882 Attachment 32883

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Attachment 32887 Attachment 32888

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Thanks threesixesinarow! We've added your Box Tools to our Machining category,
as well as to your builder page: threesixesinarow's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-box-tools"> <img src="/uploads/228801/homemade-box-tools.jpeg"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-box-tools">Box Tools</a> <span> by <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/builder/threesixesinarow_2">threesixesinarow</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href='https://www.homemadetools.net/tag/machining'>machining</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>
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Congratulations threesixesinarow - your Box Tools are the Homemade Tool of the Week!

Tough week to win around here! We had a lot of high-quality tool builds.

Some more good builds from this week:

Keyway Cutter by Vyacheslav.Nevolya
Master Link Tool by garage nut
Cylindrical Lapping Tool by tonyfoale
Aluminum Crucible by Weekend Warrior Welding
Lathe Broaching Attachment by thehomeengineer
Center Finder by barts metalwork
Welding Table by Ironworkerl417
Crosscut Sled by Mazay
Organizer by Eloy Workshop
Tapper Chuck by Crusty
Spring Clamps by RCTURKA
Lathe Carriage Lock by bouboulas
Belt Grinder by House_Work
Small Piece Holding and Leveling Method by garage nut
Dead Blow Hammer by CharlesWaugh
Third Hand by HandmadeCreativeChannel
Articulated Third Hand by Kovanca Polock
Tap Wrench by liberal



threesixesinarow - you'll be receiving a $25 online gift card, in your choice of Amazon, PayPal, or bitcoin. Please PM me your current email address and gift card choice and I'll get it sent over right away.

This is your 2nd Homemade Tool of the Week. Here are all of your Homemade Tool of the Week winning tools. Congrats again :thumbsup:


<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/5-inch-shaper-76521#post147244"> <img src="/uploads/228163/homemade-5-inch-shaper.jpeg"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/5-inch-shaper-76521#post147244">5 Inch Shaper</a> <span> by <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/builder/threesixesinarow_2">threesixesinarow</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href='https://www.homemadetools.net/tag/shaper'>shaper</a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/small-box-tools-77083#post149487"> <img src="/uploads/228801/homemade-box-tools.jpeg"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/small-box-tools-77083#post149487">Box Tools</a> <span> by <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/builder/threesixesinarow_2">threesixesinarow</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href='https://www.homemadetools.net/tag/machining'>machining</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Wow thanks!

There were a lot of great tools this week.

Here’s a picture of the smaller one to get a sense of their scale. This lathe has about the same swing as old Unimats.

Attachment 32949

It was simpler to make than the bigger one but is really touchy to set up, though it’s quite stable once it is. I wouldn’t want to use one any smaller with this kind of backrests, though, and I don’t think it would work for really tiny stock - something like greenie’s https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/smaller-box-tools-smaller-lathe-77149 which use a guide bushing ahead of the cutter would be a lot better.

Downriver Tools sells plans for a 1/2” shank box tool with a simpler fine adjustment for cutting depth that pivots with the far end of the tangential tool against a dowel: https://downrivertools.com/plan-sets-kits/turret-tooling-plan-sets/1-2-shank-pointing-box-tool-drawings-instructions-285.html I haven’t seen the drawings, I think it’s meant for the pointing tool version to be made separately but it seems like you could make an insert guide bushing holder to go in place of the back rests.

There are many neat old designs, including ones for cutting tapers: https://books.google.com/books?id=OV...PA210&pg=PA207 (C.L. Goodrich and F. A. Stanley, “Automatic Screw-machine Turning Tools”, American Machinist, Feb. 6, 1908, p.207)