Kuroda UPB-3S Boring and Facing Head

[PeteParticipant @pete41194]

A fortunate and very lucky find Andrew. I’m suitably envious 👍

 

Plain boring heads are still in use even with cnc, but many of the manufacturers of B & F heads such as Wholhaupter, Kuroda etc are now no longer making them because of cnc and haven’t for many years. Spare parts are a real issue since I doubt there’s any off the shelf gearing that could be substituted for what the OEM used in there heads. Fwiw and from my limited information, Wholhaupter B & F heads are supposed to have there shanks marked with a single ball milled and painted red dot just above where the tool shank attaches to the head. I don’t know which model type that designates though. Some have interchangeable tool shanks and some have integral shanks. Possibly it’s the one’s with the red dot that are the fixed integral shank? Graham Meeks B & F head design looks like the best way to have one.

I have one of the Narex 36 sized B & F kits Petro. Because of the unknowns with any used head, I luckily bought mine during a sale and just before they took a massive jump in price. But it was still very expensive. I think it might be doubtful many or maybe any can answer your question about how they compare to each other since someone would have had the opportunity to use both the ARC and Narex B & F heads. I can say mine is built and put together like a very fine mechanical watch. Silky smooth in fact. Even the head to tool shank attachment is a high precision ground fit. But afaik the Narex tool shank to head interface is completely proprietary to only there heads, and Narex is certainly proud of there tool shanks for what they now cost.

 

For any that might be interested, the Narex instruction manual is here. https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1632819/Narex-Vhu-2-1-8.html#manual I don’t know if ARC has there B & F head user instructions online or not.

As far as not being able to run the more simple and plain boring heads fast enough to use carbide? You people need to get out more. 😊 Quite a few manufacturers have been making automatic self balancing boring heads for a number of years that can easily be operated at high rpm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhQtIyIzn3A Unfortunately your not going to find them at what any of us would think of as a tolerable model engineering price.

 

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

Very nice Wolhaupter UPA3 for sale in the classifieds.

Tony

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