- Joined
- Oct 31, 2016
- Messages
- 2,655
Being a newbie at this machining hobby I don't have the experience to comment on the rigidity of different tool holders. But I can comment on ease of use. The lantern tool post is a royal PITA to use. I use mine to get into tight places where the bulkier 4 way or my shop made QCTP don't fit. Shimming the 4 way to get to center takes a little time to set up and you need a lot of different thickness shims to dial it in. My QCTP is the easiest to use. I made a Norman style QCTP like what Martik777 posted above. Here's mine.
With any QCTP you will need lots of tool holders which can quickly get very expensive. I made seven to start with and recently got the material to make 4 or 5 more. The whole idea for using a QCTP is to have a tool holder for each type of tool that you need. Having to change out the different tools defeats the purpose of a QCTP.
Making my QCTP was a very good learning experience. I learned a lot making mine that I would not have learned if I just bought a QCTP.
With any QCTP you will need lots of tool holders which can quickly get very expensive. I made seven to start with and recently got the material to make 4 or 5 more. The whole idea for using a QCTP is to have a tool holder for each type of tool that you need. Having to change out the different tools defeats the purpose of a QCTP.
Making my QCTP was a very good learning experience. I learned a lot making mine that I would not have learned if I just bought a QCTP.