Unimat Lathe Boring Bar Holder

[Paul Jones]

Unimat lathe boring bar holder was machined from 6061-T6 aluminum and designed to hold 0.5” diameter boring bars. The T6 temper is a very strong and a good choice for tooling for the 3” swing lathe. This particular size holder allows using more tooling from my other lathes. The various clamping screws are 8-32 stainless steel socket head screws. Also the center clamping screw allows aligning boring bars made with flats for setting their alignment.

[Captainleeward]

Quality work and great design to. :O)

[kbalch]

Thanks Paul! I've added your Boring Bar Holder to our Tool Holders category, as well as to your builder page: Paul Jones' Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Boring Bar Holder by Paul Jones

tags: lathe, tool holder, boring bar

[DIYer]

Very nice work, Paul Jones!

[kbalch]

This thread has been moved to the Must Read subforum. Congrats (and thanks) to Paul for making such a valuable contribution!

[ncollar]

Paul
As usual you have done a fascinating job. I've always loved the versatility of the Unimat Lathe and Milling Machines. So much can be done with them. Very nice machining and write up.

[Paul Jones]

ncollar,

Thank you for the responding to this posting. I enjoy using the 3" swing Unimat for some of my small, precision work. Below are some additional photos about making the boring bar holder.

Machining the boring bar through hole to be parallel with the lathe axis.




I used the Unimat milling head to cut the boring bar compression slot using a slotting saw blade. The Unimat face plate in the background of the photo is used as a reference to set the parts at 90 degrees before starting the slotting cut.



It is a fun small lathe for many projects where appropriate.

Regards,

Paul Jones

[olderdan]

Paul that is a super job, to my shame I have never considered the Unimat to be anything more than a light hobby machine.
Watching your many posts on the work you do with it now makes me wish I had one.
Regards
Olderdan