WTB Aloris CA holders for BIG bars
- Thread starter Garwood
- Start date
Mud
Well-known member
Are they made?
Barbter
Well-known member
Why am I surprised, that something rare, is what you're after!
Oldwrench
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Years ago Fims (now defunct) made a big bar with the B-size dovetail machined directly into it, with both internal and external inserts on the end. Surprised Aloris or Dorian hasn't done the same. Actually it would make more sense for a soft-jaw manufacturer to offer lathe toolpost holders, since the workpiece size and shape is so similar.
I know people are reading that saying they'd rather operate a hot dog cart.
I know people are reading that saying they'd rather operate a hot dog cart.
Mud
Well-known member
^^^^ +1 a 2.5" bar would take a CA dovetail easy.
Me, I'd probably weld a bar to a 1" turning tool holder.
Me, I'd probably weld a bar to a 1" turning tool holder.
Oldwrench
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He's got the biggest
Bars of them all
Bars of them all
So I needed to tool up this Puma CNC lathe I bought. In the past, I had run left handed bars on my twin turret mazak because of how the X axis was built. RH bars would sing. For the Puma, I wanted RH bars. So I'm getting ready to spend a grand or so on a few new boring bars then I remember theres a big lathe shop going to auction nearby in a week. All the boring bar lots had terrible pictures, but the machinery was nice so I kinda convinced myself the bars were probably decent and started bidding. With the amount of money I was going to spend on a few bars fresh in my mind I figgered I'd best spend that same money on used bars to be sure I got what I needed. I forget (blocked out?) how many lots I bought, but it was around 15 or 20 with, oh, 30-50 bars in each lot. So now I got 500 or so nice boring bars for the price of 3. From 1/4" through 2.5" Sounds decent right?
So then I'm over at my friend Doug's place who's closing his shop down. Stopped by to see how the building cleanse was going. He had a real heavy shop. 60" x 40' lathe, 10' VTL, 20 foot planer, that kinda stuff. He says he had some clamps for me. I ask how much. "A buck a piece" he says. So I got about 1000 lbs of 6-18" heavy C-clamps for $100. So we're loading up these clamps and the steel hopper next to it is full of NMTB50 tools and all kinds of stuff. He says "it's all the tooling that was on the machines I just scrapped- You want it?" Well shit, there's an empty spot on my trailer. Better load that up too. That process repeated. We filled all the bare spots on my trailer. And the flatbed on my truck. And I got another load to pick up sometime this week (Damnit Doug!) So anyway, back to the boring bars, I'm going through this steel hopper of goodies like an archeological dig and about a foot down I hit boring bars. Hundreds. More. Boring bars. Big ones, all 2 and 2.5". There was a 2.5" 30" long Kennametal Devibe bar. Holy fucking Christmas!
So, If I have to give $350 or whatever they want on Ebay for a 2.5" CA boring bar holder it won't kill me. I just figured I'd ask around before I did.
And now you all understand how the town I live in has sunk 2 feet since I moved here.
Have we discussed my collection of explosion proof rotary telephones???
Next time I go to your shop I'm bringing my truck.....
It's been awhile! You need to visit before the weather gets nice and you're gone every day! Busiest retired guy there is I swear!
Mud
Well-known member
I had a CA on the cross slide of a 20" Milltronics flatbed teach lathe to supplement the small turret and for when I needed larger bars. We rotated it out of position a few times from the thrust, so we put a pin in the bottom of the CA to locate it. Someone made a holder for those toolposts that held a bar inline with the center instead of offset like normal, I wanted to get one of those but sold the lathe before that happened.
Mud
Well-known member
I have these in CA size, I'll part with one if it will help you.
First shop I worked at had a 24”x144”American Pacemaker and a Dickson QC toolpost. The block was about 6” square and one hell of a stout piece. If I had a big lathe and was starting fresh, I’d go with that over Aloris (assuming Dickson are still made anyway).
alphonso
Well-known member
Don't know if Dickson is still alive but there is an Italian company that makes a copy called "Rapid Original". Stout and heavy. On a 36" X 240" lathe.
Barbter
Well-known member
Dickson are still going having recently been sold/bought by a USA vulture capitalist.
600 group had sold their whole manufacturing group - Colchester Harrison PratBurnerd/Dickson....
600 group had sold their whole manufacturing group - Colchester Harrison PratBurnerd/Dickson....
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Wanted to update this a bit. I ended up with multiple nice modular 2" Devibe boring bars and heads and not many 2.5" bars that were actually useful for what I do. After scouring the web looking at all the variations of big CA toolholders I kept going back to the Dorian style as looking like the most beef and nicest clamping mechanism so I bought one.
I think Dorian nailed it. This thing just fits on a CA toolpost, uses the whole height of it. Now I need to make shims for both my manual lathes so they can use the big bars and both toolposts are exact same height in relation to spindle centerline (been meaning to do this for years).