Project #1 from welderdude: parting tool holder

[welderdude]

I have needed a parting tool for my grizzly lathe for a while now, so I decided to make a custom holder for it and buy a cheap parting bit off of ebay. I got a nice Empire bit made from CMP T-15 from ebay for 16 bucks and made the holder with what I had around the shop.

I started with a piece of 3/4'' plate 2x3 inches big. I torched it out of a big piece i had, cleaned it up with the angle grinder, then used the mill to get it squared up. I used a face mill bit to square it up and a 1/4 inch end mill to cut the slot for the parting bit and the slot for the 3" x 1" x 1/4" piece of 4140 flat stock. I tig welded the 2 pieces together with my 400gms at 150 amps and heated it up until it was almost a very dull red and let it air cool to temper any hard spots. I then drilled and tapped the 4 x 1/4-28 holes and cut out the keeper plate.

I tested it on a piece of 1 inch 8620 bar stock and cut a piece clean off and the tip was still razer sharp. The CMP T-15 makes regular M2 like like child's play.