Tailstock Tap & Die Holder

firemaker76 said:
So another tool that has been a life-saver for me is this tap & die holder for the tailstock on my lathe. The plans for the main body I got from Clickspring, who does absolutely amazing work. I stayed pretty close to his plans with the exception of a die adapter that I decided to make for versatility purposes.
I started off with a piece of 1.625" 6061, turned it down to 1.500" and then drilled and reamed the center .500". I bored one end 1.000". This would allow me to use the round 1", split-style dies or the adapter that I would be building to hold the hex shaped dies that are more common (Craftsman, etc).
The other end I bored out to .810" to hold an Irwin adjustable tap socket. Once done on the lathe, I mounted the body in the dividing head and milled (24) .062" deep grooves for a nice grip. After that I drilled and tapped holes on both ends at 0, 45, 90 and 180 degrees for setscrews.
Then I turned a small piece of 01 Drill Rod for the handle and added some grooves.
For the tailstock, I bought an MT3 x 1/2-20 threaded drill chuck arbor and turned, bored and threaded a piece of 4140HT to mate up to it.
The adapter was turned from 1.500" 6061 and then drilled and reamed .500". Inletting the hex socket in the face was somewhat interesting, but it worked. I used the DRO to drill the holes and then used a small endmill to cut the flats from one hole to the next. Once the outer diameter was done, I finished up the center with a 3/4" endmill. From there I drilled and tapped holes for the setscrews that would secure the die in place. All in all a very fun project and is proving to be one of the most used tools on my lathe.

Thanks for reading all! Be safe.
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beautiful work.
 
Harry Knutz said:
Fabulous, Just Fabulous!
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Thanks very much Harry. BTW, I love the profile picture. I know this is off topic, but is that a Leupold Mark IV on top of an AI chassi? Just very curious about some specs on that. I only ask because precision rifle is the whole reason I ventured into machining in the first place. Thanks for posting sir
 
firemaker76 said:
Thanks very much Harry. BTW, I love the profile picture. I know this is off topic, but is that a Leupold Mark IV on top of an AI chassi? Just very curious about some specs on that. I only ask because precision rifle is the whole reason I ventured into machining in the first place. Thanks for posting sir
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You're welcome my friend, You are doing some beautiful work! That is a Leupold Mark IV, But the rifle, You probably wouldn't believe me, But that is a 1942 Mosin Nagant that has several 1000 yard wins under it's belt, And just won a Gold Medal last year at 1000 yards. I built the rifle in 2011. Those are pics from shortly after I built it. I have had several other scopes and other mods etc since then. It's the only rifle I have that has shot 5 shots into the exact same hole in the exact center of the bullseye. And I have some very high end rifles that won't do that. I cant find a pic of that target, But here are some pics that it routinely shoots.
 

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Harry Knutz said:
You're welcome my friend, You are doing some beautiful work! That is a Leupold Mark IV, But the rifle, You probably wouldn't believe me, But that is a 1942 Mosin Nagant that has several 1000 yard wins under it's belt, And just won a Gold Medal last year at 1000 yards. I built the rifle in 2011. Those are pics from shortly after I built it. I have had several other scopes and other mods etc since then. It's the only rifle I have that has shot 5 shots into the exact same hole in the exact center of the bullseye. And I have some very high end rifles that won't do that. I cant find a pic of that target, But here are some pics that it routinely shoots.
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Thank you for the support, I truly appreciate it.
Wow, beautiful rifle and targets. I'm curious, what size groups will that gun hold at 1,000 yards? Sorry for the direct question, but I'm a sucker for precision and am dying to know.
 
It will easily hold a half moa out there and even better if I read the wind good on a good day. I just finished a 6.5x54R and a .30x54R Improved also.
 
Amazing. That is impressive, especially considering being able to compensate for wind and/or changes in wind at that distance.
 
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