What's new
What's new

How do you guys organize your lathe tools, etc.?

Mike W

Stainless
Joined
Jan 12, 2003
Location
Central Kali.
On my old import I had a system with a box that fit on top of the flat head stock and a shelving unit that held the quick change tool holders, etc. Now I have a Clausing sitting out by itself. I need to come up with a system to park the chuck wrenches, tool holders, etc. Any ideas?
 
I like the idea of a wooden box on the headstock and they are handy. My lathe is a 9" SB and behind it is a peg board. I drilled holes in the butt of the holders and hang them on a peg. My parting holder is held there on a magnetic strip, which works well.

I don't like the idea of reaching over a machine and being a type A, find waiting for the machine to come to a halt, a pain.

I do have drawers beneath the wooden bench for storeage of measuring tools and that works for me. I think storing bits in the drawers would be too much mess.-Jerald
 
Almost exactly like Jerald, pegboard with a mag strip. I also ran a board behind the lathe, between the lathe & the pegboard, to put indicators on between setups.

101_0394.jpg
 
For free standing equipment, that has no wall near, use a roll around tool cabinet. All the tools go in the drawers except ones being used for the current project. The tools in current use can sit on the top of the box. Nothing goes back in the box that is dirty or dull ( at least thats the theroy).
lg
no neat sig line
 
Cutters , boring bars and armstrong holders go in the top right hand drawer in the cabinet of the 10L. I fetch what I need for the Logan from this same stash. Tools in use are kept over by the headstock on the top of the cabinet.

Pacemaker tools are in a big rack of shelves near the tailstock end. Tools in use are kept on the tailstock side of the carriage wing (plenty of room and it's not going to vibrate off in this case).

I'll second the roll-around. I use that setup wth the milling machines. Mine is not a factory roll-around, it's a donated wooden lab cabinet on rollers that came out of a local university. I added a lipped aluminum diamondplate top and a block for the VN 2 collets and arbors.
 
A year ago (or more?
) I carved myself up a big handful of dovetail QC blocks for my A-size import Aloris-style toolpost on my 11" Logan.

After a bit of pondering, I came up with this (if I do say so myself) ingeniously simple rack:

racks.jpg


It's just 1/8" by 1/2" steel flatbar, with a little spacer/bracket at each end, and the center bar welded at an angle to more or less match the dovetail of the block.

Then, just mount them to the wall:

racked.jpg


The mounting tabs could be welded to the 'underside' of the bars, but I wanted the positive stop of the tabs to keep blocks from being accidentally slid off the ends.

Each rack took maybe eight minutes to make, including drilling and countersinking. Scale up as necessary for larger than A-size blocks.

I now have eight of them, holding a total of 21 blocks. It's quite handy.

Doc.
 
if lathe against a wall.........a 2x6 ,flat w/ 2x4 feet & couple angle braces , w/ a gazillion holes drilled, nails driven on supports holds all...lathe pan holds against wall ..no need to anchor ...it goes nowhere.....

14 in antique has angle iron across the front legs , w/ a slotted board bolted to it holding near all , open front chest underneath for chucks , faceplate,dog driverhanging off of lathe box on rear of ways...
if u dont like glueing back the split off pieces of wood , use plywood ..i will next time

best wishes
docn8as
 
Well, I've done plenty like Forrest Addy's talking about. Then, one day it hit me. I go through all this crap, don't find the item I need, then go to the store anyway!

Well, what does the store use that I don't?? SHELVES with BINS. I then set about putting like items in bins, the cardboard ones from Enco are fine, and labeling those bins. Street ells, no matter the size, go in one bin. The same way with tees, alemites, pipe unions, whatever. I've saved myself TONS of time going to the store, not to mention the time saved, plus, finally making USE of the junk since it's organized enough I can find things now. I also know when I'm out of something.

I also like Doc's Aloris rack!

Richard
 
Ideally, they have a drawer in a Vidmar a couple paces off. In reality, they end up chucked into the tailstock end of the chip pan :rolleyes: until I have a "cleanup" day or else the job is so serious and producing so many chips that I'm afraid good stuff is going to go out with the cleanup and so I stop and relocate it. :(
 
When they are not in use, I try to keep edged stuff (milling cutters, boring bars, etc.) in the poly mesh protective expandible sleeving that MSC sells. Comes in different diameters, color coded as to size. Tools slip in and out easily and quickly. Keeps edges and shanks in reasonable shape whether the tools are knocking around in a bucket or drawer, or lying in the chip pan. The alternative of having neatly arranged ranks of individual holes in special labelled storage plates in dedicated bins isn't something that works for me.
 
Bringing this back from the dead!

I have a new lathe and I'm trying to not pile junk on the headstock like I have in the past. I really like those simple QCTP holder racks above - I think I'll hang one of those off the backsplash (the swing isn't too big to reach over).

For the other things that I want at-hand (not in the toolbox) while working, I'm thinking about a wooden rack of sorts. I have a few hex wrenches, a couple box-ends, a chuck key or two, a standard cut to spindle height, a file, wrench for my drill chuck, a sharpie or three, and a file. Does anyone have a tray or rack for these sorts of do-dads that might inspire me to organizational greatness, or at least organizational mediocrity?

Thanks!
-Phil
 








 
Back
Top