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Aloris tool question

Richard Rogers

Titanium
Joined
Nov 27, 2001
Location
Bentley, Louisiana
When it comes to those tool holders with a Jacobs chuck on them, I'd like to know what is better about that than the chuck being in the tailstock. Am I missing something? Don't get me wrong, somehow it ~LOOKS~ handy, but I then wonder "for what??"
smile.gif


Anyone own/use one?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2530527085&category=25295

This is a link to an eBay example for someone who's wondering what I'm talking about.

One other question. What will still be made in the US in ten years? Seriously. I'm trying to establish what line of manufacturing would be healthy enough to count on for a reasonable term. What business in the manufacturing sector seems to be both approachable by a small entrepeneur and not likely to draw corporate/Chinese invasion?

Thanks,

Richard
 
Hi Richard;

One adavantage of the drill chuck mounted to the tool post would be drilling with the power feed. Your right, the set up looks sort of funky.

Your second question is difficult to answer and most of us ask ourselves the same question. Us Americans seem to demonstrate creativity and originality, then the Asians copy it. If you can come up with a
"Pet rock" and make a couple of million bucks before the Asian can copy it, that would be good.

Anything in the way of a specialty nitch would be safe from the Chinese. The Chinese are out for the high volume stuff as. Any work that is short run and special would likely be all yours for a long time. If I had an example I would be doing it. Friends have suggested that I sell some the special tools that I dreamed up on Ebay.
Got to run,
Jim
 
I understand using the chacobs chuck in the aloris as a power fed drill (with the cariage feeding it forward). I do not understand how you would acurately center the cross feed and the tool post height. Not to mention perpendicularity of the entire tool post to the work. How do you quickly set up the chuck??
 
Richard - when I had a lathe with a short tailstock travel, I used a holder like that for long drills because it was faster than sliding the tailstock in and out and clamping and unclamping it when peck drilling.
 
Mostly a matter of convenience. Once setup, the tailstock is always centered, and you can lock it down and apply a lot more force with the spindle screw than you can with the carriage feed gears.

As for your second question, unfortunately it doesn’t look like much will be made here in ten years. However, this isn’t the biggest part of the problem. It’s not just the manufacturing sector that’s being shipped overseas, its now extending into the service sector as well. For instance, thanks to modern telecommunications, most people don’t realize that when you call a 1-800 service line, such as your stock broker or an online merchandise service, odds are that you are talking to someone physically located in Asia or India, even if its an “American” company. They read the same script as someone in the States so you can’t tell the difference, but get paid only $1/hr. In other words, anything that’s not nailed down and can possibly be done somewhere else, eventually will.

The net effect of all this is that the primary product Asia is exporting across the globe is DEFLATION, something we in the west have not seen for quite some time, and that is very damaging to our economy. We won’t be able to maintain our comfortable lifestyles and the hard won good wages we’ve grown accustomed to if, in the future, everything we do or produce can be duplicated somewhere else for 1/100 the cost. Even if you come up with a niche product, who will be willing or able to pay a decent price? Innovation and creativity can only go so far. You can’t support an entire economy of 275 million people on just R&D. The dot-com bust proved that!

Don’t expect any help from the politicians either. Both parties supported NAFTA, and both parties fight religiously to renew China’s Most Favored Nation Status every time its up, regardless of how many people they put in the gulag. Seems our politicians are perfectly willing to sell out America’s future just to line their pockets with lobbyist cash in the present. Most historians agree that the 20th century was the “American Century”. These same people agree that the 21st won’t be. Coincidentally, the destruction of the United States has been the stated goal of the Chinese Communist Party since day one. However they, unlike the former Soviet Union and current Arab terrorists, realize that this can’t be done militarily, but can be done economically!

Sorry about the length of this rant, but this is a major sore spot with me right now!


[This message has been edited by rpmachining (edited 05-13-2003).]
 
Unfortunately there are very few areas that are now "exclusively" ours (US). One of course, is the mortuary business, hair cutting and personal services of which there are a wide variety. Filling stations, repair shops, tire shops, anything where you could not easily buy from overseas. I know a lot of these places exist on a mere 3 to 5% of sales and is not the place to retire quickly unless you command a bunch of chain stores or franchises. Farming will eventually become very profitable for those who seek to do it properly as the world supply of food shrinks. The US is a net exporter of food, many countrys are net importers. As long as climate change does not turn the US into a dust bowl, I think we are ok. China can export cheap goods, what how are they going to feed their expanding population when they are quickly loosing their agricultural areas because of pollution and loss of area due to the expanding population and areas taken over by paving and industry ? It will all come back, just going to take a lot of years for the adjustment to happen.

TMD
 
Two big advantages: 1) using the power feed, and 2) no worries about the drill spinning the tailstock taper.

It takes me about 20 seconds to center the drill. I put a piece of ground stock (like drill rod) into the chuck, loosen the toolpost so the drill chuck can float, and then clamp the other end with the 3-jaw. Then just tighten the toolpost. I've found this quick and dirty method to be more accurate than holding the drill in the tailstock.

George
 
I like George's method of centering the chuck. Sounds like it works well enough for most work.

As regards the other question, politicians are already starting to notice a major(Duh?) decrease in tax revenues from the manufacturing sector and from people who are no longer employed there. Hopefully the emptying of their pockets will cause them to figure out what the problem is before we all go broke.

I also believe The Metal Doc is right about farming. This would explain why companies like Cargill and ADM are in it in such a big way.

Regards,
Tom
 
People who are dumb enough to abuse their horse usually aren't smart enought to change their ways when the horse croaks. They just get another horse and start again.. CA is just the same...

-- jr
 
I wish I had a toolpost mounted drill chuck when I used to run a manual/CNC hybrid lathe. I always thought it was awkward how a lathe so powerful couldn't drill a hole. Drilling with the tailstock means switching drill bits repeatedly and usually moving the tailstock up and down the ways. You have to touch off the drill bit after every change.

I made a shank to mount a drill chuck in a boring bar holder. The setup is easy: First indicate the center of a dowel or gage pin and leave the vertical adjustment as is. This adjustment will never change. Get in the habit of setting the toolpost square with the spindle and adjusting the angle of the tools in the tool blocks themselves. When you need to drill, simply move the cross slide in position using a test indicator mag mounted to the spindle chuck and note the cross slide dial reading or set the tool offset in a DRO. Needless to say, this is only for short run production. I think the greatest benefit is not having to move the tailstock up and down the ways all day because of short ram travel. It's also less tiring than having to crank the ram in and out all day.
 
Richard,
Concerning planning for world class success 10 years from now success . . .
Joe Martin makes several insightfull observations in his online book on running a small business. See the Shureline Lathe website
 








 
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