My first modification after buying my G0602 was to add a Quick Change Tool Post. QCTP’s have many advantages, including quick and easy tool changes, consistant tool height setting, and safety (sharp tools sticking out in 4 directions from a standard 4-way tool post can be a painful way to learn a lesson!).

Anyway, adding a QCTP to the G0602 is very simple, as long as you  access to a milling machine to mill the plate that fits in the t-slot. Here’s a video of the process.

If you don’t have a milling machine you could figure out a way to hold the plate in your 4-way tool post and use an end mill held in the chuck (or better yet held in an end mill holder that fits the taper of your lathe spindle). But you’re best bet is to use a mill to modify the plate to fit your t-slot.

One final thing, your QCTP probably came with a plate to modify as mine did. But my plate was a bit short, so I fabricated my own out of a piece of scrap. Doing so requires you to also have a proper tap handy. That tap size may vary depending on who made your QCTP, but just keep that in mind if you decide to make your own plate rather than modify the one the tool post comes with. I purchased my tap for about $12 from a local supplier (no shipping). You could probably get one for about the same price from an online supplier + shipping. If it’s a size you think you’ll use a lot moving forward, go ahead and purchase a high-quality tap. But if not, go with a cheap tap. I haven’t used my tap since adding the QCTP over two years ago, so the cheapest tap they made was perfect!

As an alternative to buying a tap, you could also single point the internal threads on the plate, but that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax, and somewhat outside of the scope of a beginner-level modification. But if someone does single point their plate, please post a comment with pictures &/or video of your modification.

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In the following two videos Barry Young walks you through the process of sharpening your twist drills by hand. There are a few other videos on the web showing this process, but none (at least none that I’ve found) show multiple angles and describe the process in as much detail as these videos do.

This is our first major video tutorial project with multiple camera views. We shot it in HD (1080p) with High Def cameras and then uploaded it to YouTube in HD (720p) which is as high a quality as YouTube will allow. But even at 720p the video is better than DVD quality.

Please leave your comments via the forum and let us know what you think. Our next videos will be on grinding your own HSS tooling (RH Tool, LH Tool, and Threading Tool), and then we plan to do a multi-cam video on single point threading.

However, your feedback is critical. We want to know your thoughts, good or bad. It would also be helpful to know if there are any other topics that you’d like to see made into videos.

Thanks!

Tyler and Barry

Video #1 of 2: Sharpening Twist Drills By Hand – Introduction

Video #2 of 2: Sharpening Twist Drills By Hand – Sharpening

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“How do I set my lathe so that I can take very fine cuts?”

This question comes up occasionally on the forum and I’ve seen it addressed in books, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a video of the process, so I decided to make one.

Setting up your lathe to take very fine cuts is a simple process. The quick version is this: By setting your compound at an angle of between 5° and 6° you’ll be able to use the dial on the compound as a very fine feed, advancing the tool in tenths for every thousandth you turn on the dial.

This is sometimes referred to as “Slewing the compound”. Although I’m not sure how technically accurate the term “to slew” is when talking about lathes. This could be slang for all I know and to make matters worse I’m not sure if it’s American slang or Brittish slang (as I have read dozens of books from both sides of the water), so be careful if you decide to break out the term in a shop full of machinists. You might get some funny looks.

I’ve seen this process described in multiple books, including the Machinist’s Bedside Reader by Guy Lautard, and in Lathework a Complete Course by Harold Hall. Both of which are excellent books. The first book by Lautard shows you the math behind the process I’ve outlined here and uses imperial (inch) measurements. The second book by Hall describes a slightly different method and is written for those who work in metric.

Anyway, if your compound is set at 5.75° and you advance the dial on your compound .001″, the tool bit advances toward the part .0001″ thus taking a very fine cut.

That’s as easy (or as complicated) as it gets. For most of you the image above will be enough of an explanation, but for those who require a little more reinforcement of the concept, here’s a “short” video of the process. I took 8 minutes to explain what should have taken 60 seconds. It seems I need to work on being succinct and not sounding deadpan. But hey, we all have our things to work on, right? Bueler … ?

Setting your compound to exactly 5.75° isn’t critical, somewhere between 5° and 6° will get you very close. You can also use this process for metric cuts.

Do you have a different method that you like to use? Please leave a comment on the forum. We’d like to hear it!

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