Just to inspire some of you I thought to show my design for a rear tool post for the old Myford ML 10.

The quick change tool post on the tool slide has served me well, but mostly with smaller diameter tools. But in those cases where I want to use a knurling tool I am forced to swap out the quick change tool post for the original ‘elephant ear’ clamping system. In addition to the annoyance of the time and fussiness of switching one clamping system for the other (and then back again) is the fact that I am often confronted with the knurling tool being pushed out of line during use by the heavy lateral forces of the knurling operation.

This tool post design gives me a few advantages…

(1) It mounts very quickly with only two cap head screws.

(2) It offers secure, instant and perpendicular mounting of the knurling tool

(3) The skirts running along the bottom which contact the side and rear of the cross slide positively prevent the tool post from swiveling in use.

(4) Though essentially designed for the knurling I can do limited amounts of cut-off work as well.

(5) … and obviously I don’t need to pull off the quick change tool post each time I want to do some knurling.

Regarding the design and construction of this tool post: I used the Blender 3D software as a tool for visualization. This allowed me not only to ‘see’ what I was creating, but also to size the metal pieces ahead of time. It will be noted that the tool post hangs out over the rear of the cross slide, giving the additional physical space for mounting tools. Those ‘skirts’ that I designed in to prevent the tool post from rotating out of position give added strength to the whole construction.

I flattened and printed out the required shapes onto paper which then served to assist in the layout and cutting out of the individual pieces (with a plasma cutter). Most of the top portion are cut from 3mm hot rolled flat stock, the lower ‘skirts’ are from 5mm strip stock and the tool support and clamping strip with the four cap head screws are milled from some heavy square bar. Those pieces were then assembled with my TIG welder. The end result is battle ship solid and needed only a bit of fettling on the milling machine to true up some bits that had slightly distorted due to the heat of welding.

Obviously, one could just as easily make something like this by milling the back post support from a chunk of solid stock (which I did not have) and then bolting everything together, though I suspect the addition of the skirts might be a bit more trouble. The pictures below tell the rest of the story.