Lathe tooling storage solutions

[MP&C]

This is my new "loaner". A buddy of mine is moving and won't have room for this for a couple (or so) years until he gets a shop built. Should come in handy making dies for my bead roller.

It also came with a bunch of tooling and fixtures that were hanging on his pegboard. And me without pegboard. He already has two workbench drawers mounted under the tray, loaded with all the morse taper bits, reamers, etc. Needless to say, the drawers are quite heavy. It still had room to the right of the drawers, so I thought a stepped plate would work well for all the collets, drill chucks, etc. So I bent a piece of 18 ga CRS and made use of uni-bits to drill a bunch of holes....

That should help keep some of my chaos in check...

Post up some of your lathe organization..

 

[klaw]

nice job

 

[ZRX61]

Post up some of your lathe organization..

ok, but gimme a couple of days to come up with some form of organization..

 

[rockwithjason]

niiiiice! i am green with jealousy

 

[ZRX61]

Is that a 13in? Kinda looks like one of my SouthBends.

 

[MP&C]

Yes, it's 13" swing...5' bed

 

[Bernie Mac]

Now all you need is to find a friend who needs to store a mill for a couple of years and there will be nothing you can't fab.
Looks great and I might steal the idea for my Clausing.
Bernie

 

[A_Pmech]

Looks good!

I wish my machine had a better chip pan design. It's made from 3/16" plate and cannot be removed. For a machine that will fill the pan a couple times a shift you'd think the could have at least made one that slid out!

My lathe tooling is stored in the dark bench the vise is mounted on:

The sign was a joke for Mjozefow who gave me the bench. Photographic proof I mounted a vise to it.

 

[steel 35]

That really came out nice! here is one of mine when I found this site, I think it looks worse now that I have been shamed, and started cleaning.

 

[drof]

I just bought my first lathe, an old Craftsman. I am in the middle of renovating an old barn and this idea is great. Copying is the greatest form of flattery.

 

[ptschram]

What? You don't just pile it up around the lathe?

I've got a kitchen cabinet hanging on the wall next to the lathe I use the most.

 

[JamieK]

Whats the purpose of all the collets when you have a chuck on the lathe?

 

[larry_g]

Whats the purpose of all the collets when you have a chuck on the lathe?

Collets are an order better on precision than the chuck. Scroll chucks are not perfect and will not center the work repeatably like a collet will. To use a collet you have to have material with a good smooth od that is sized to the collet as it has only a couple of thousands tolerance to fit the material. It's like measuring do you use a tape measure, calipers, or a micrometer. Each has their place.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[willy3486]

I have one of the small craftsman lathes I restored. Its small but I expect it will do most of what I need. As far as it goes I had a old copier stand that was about 2 feet tall. I made new sides to add to the top,the actual copier cabinet is at the bottom pf the picture and the round bowl is on it. I made a top for it and put the lathe on it. I got a old Kennedy machinists tool box I rebuilt and made a stand for it that goes over the lathe out of the way. I have all of my tools in this cabinet that I can roll in the corner when I am not using it. It does fine by me as the tool box is full with everything I will need with it.

 

[henrysgarage]

A lot of good ideas for storage.

 

[DCarr]

Real nice set up ! great job.

 

[lilredex]

As usual, more of your super neat and well organized work.

Only one thing bothers me with your set up..........those MT's running through that sheet metal constantly. Might be better to drill those sheet metal holes a bit oversize, then screw a wooden block underneath with a hole to accept the MT. Lately I have been thinking about making a similar rack to organize my SB9 tooling, and that was going to be my solution to that problem.

 

[rwhite692]

Collets are an order better on precision than the chuck. Scroll chucks are not perfect and will not center the work repeatably like a collet will. To use a collet you have to have material with a good smooth od that is sized to the collet as it has only a couple of thousands tolerance to fit the material. It's like measuring do you use a tape measure, calipers, or a micrometer. Each has their place.

lg
no neat sig line

Add to that, the fact that collets are much quicker to use when making several of the same part, one after the other. a collet stop can be used so that each piece is inserted into the collet to the same depth, which positions the stock for machining the same, each time. When precision, setup speed and repeatability are key, collets are the way to go.

 

[KrisKustomPaint]

Is he your new best friend?

 

[ZRX61]

Some of it. There's a SB becnhtop 9in in pieces on that shelf in the last pic. It came with 5C collet set up so I have a spare for my Heavy 10 now. The smaller collets in the first pic fit my SB 13x40. The 5C's in the blue rack are duplicates, the ones in the white boxes are brand new & also duplicates.

 

[ZRX61]

I also have this turret tail stock for a Heavy 10 for sale...

 

[MP&C]

Nice collection of accessories

 

[NASTYZEN]

This is my new "loaner". A buddy of mine is moving and won't have room for this for a couple (or so) years until he gets a shop built. Should come in handy making dies for my bead roller.

It also came with a bunch of tooling and fixtures that were hanging on his pegboard. And me without pegboard. He already has two workbench drawers mounted under the tray, loaded with all the morse taper bits, reamers, etc. Needless to say, the drawers are quite heavy. It still had room to the right of the drawers, so I thought a stepped plate would work well for all the collets, drill chucks, etc. So I bent a piece of 18 ga CRS and made use of uni-bits to drill a bunch of holes....

That should help keep some of my chaos in check...

Post up some of your lathe organization..

Hey!Hey! Nice score Robert!
There should be hours of fun and pleasure in that loaner. Watch your fingers!

 

[Steve from Socal]

That rack is a neat idea.

Here is another tooling solution. This is a little cabinet that was sold as an accessory for my lathe, you can find similar ones from Lista and Vidmar. This one in particular has a unique feature, the top is hinged and a lazy Susan for collets is below it. Some lathes have lazy Susan's on swing arms and others have slide shelves with collet racks.

The lazy Susan here holds 44 collets, or a set from 1/16th to 1 3/8th by 32nds.

Steve

 

[onewaydave]

I like your work Robert. But, my old geezer status requires something higher up. I would like to incorporate your idea into a 1/2 rack lazy susan on a pole with few shelves (maybe for infrequently used items) below waist height. Its easier (and better) for me to step up on a stool than to bend at the waist or drop to my knees to see/get something. Something similar to Ryans new post;

http://www.garagejournal.com/

Dave.

 

[cnc-me]

Whats the purpose of all the collets when you have a chuck on the lathe?

Not to mention, that a collet is a lot lighter, and has less inertia than
a large 3 or 4 jaw chuck spinning at high RPM......
It really comes into play on production jobs.

 

[cnc-me]

I also have this turret tail stock for a Heavy 10 for sale...

That would be a bed turret....
What brand is that?

 

[henrysgarage]

Robert, nice job on the bed holder, Happy Easter to all.

 

[chief ben]

I'm still working on the Mini Machine Shop, slow but sure i'm getting there,
still have a lot of things to move from the big shop, but don't have far to go Ha. Ha. anyway it's starting to look like a shop instead of a storage shed.