had been thinking forsome time of making apillar tool as designed by

George Thomas and availablein kit form from Hemmingway.My problem was however, thatI had always considered this tobe a little on the small side formy requirements. I already hada 9” (228 mm) diameter lathefaceplate that had been givento me and which I had screw-cut to fit my Myford MLSuper7B. It would be ideal ifthis could double as a pillar tooltable. I also had a motorisedsensitive drilling head whichhad been adapted from a verybroken cloth drill – used in theclothing industry. Unfortunatelyboth of these items wouldrequire the tapping arms tohave a reach of 5½” (140 mm)between centres as opposed tothe George Thomas designwhich has a reach of 3½” (89mm) between centres.

Designing by the “MakeDo and Mend Method”I am sure that some reader isabout to tell me where I couldobtain some castings for thisproject, but I was unable to lo-cate any castings that were larg-er than the Geo. Thomas design.Hemmingway did however statethat this is somethingthat they had beenconsidering of-fering for sometime. I consideredvarious design ideas– including the de-sign by Harold Hallin MEW Issue105, but I pre-fer a roundpillar so thatthe arms maybe swung outof the way.Whilst considering how I couldmake the arms with my poor weld-ing ability, I looked at a cast“Steam Tee” in a box of steampipe fittings at work and I consid-ered that two of these could be uti-

lised to make an arm for a tappingtool / pillar tool. I therefore visitedthe local suppliers of steam fittingsand purchased two 1” x ½” steamtees as illustrated in Photo. 1. The1” and ½” dimensions refer to the

MAKING A PILLAR TOOLWITHOUT CASTINGSDavid Haythornthwaite describes making a largerthan usual pillar tool without the use of castings.

I

Photo.1 The Original Pipe Fittings

inside diameter of the pipe not ofthe Tee fitting. If you intend tofollow my method, I recommendthat, if possible, you obtain thetype with the small fillet betweenthe vertical and horizontal sockets.Steam tees are available, in Brit-ain, both with, and without the fil-let. They are not expensive and Iobtained two as a trial for £1.90each. Fig 1. shows the dimensionsthat I was aiming at, but you willhave to adapt these according tothe tees you are using and the re-quired reach that you require. Idecided to use a 1” (25.4 mm)stainless steel column 20” long(508 mm).I decided to start by, in effect,making a solid “casting” by boringthe tees and filling them with steel,then boring the resulting arm to fiton the pillar. I considered that thebest plan was to make the parts agood push fit and to Araldite (slow2 part epoxy) the whole thing to-gether. As the clamping arrange-ment is to be of the type whichembodies a sliding brass cotter topress on the pillar, it was neces-sary to ensure that the inside of thetee was completely filled withsteel, so that the clamping arrange-ment was not situated in a void.

Adapting the Pipe FittingsThe first task was to remove thethreads from the ends of the pipefittings and to obtain a smoothbore. I placed the 1” end into the 3jaw chuck on the Myford, using

the outside jaws and lined it up byinserting a large diameter rotatingtailstock into the other end whilstthe chuck jaws were fairly slack.Upon tightening the 3 jaw chuck,the fitting ran quite true and turn-ing could begin. The first point tomake is that a fairly rigid boringtool is necessary as the pipe fittingis 63.5 mm long and therefore youneed to have a boring tool withthis reach. With the lathe stopped,first, wind the boring tool fullyinto the pipe fitting until it touchesthe chuck jaw. Then back the sad-dle away from the chuck by a fewthou and set either a saddle stop orset the DRO / dials to zero. Checkit again and turn the lathe by handto ensure that the tool is not touch-ing the jaws. Withdraw the boringtool and bore right through, in-creasing the diameter until youhave a smooth, accurate bore fromend to end as in Photo. 2. In mycase this was 35.2 mm diameter.At the same time, clean up the out-er diameter at the end of the fittingso that you have a collar that issymmetrical to the bore. Also facethe end. Apart from making it lookgood, it means that you can nowreverse the fitting in the chuck andhave a reasonable chance of it run-ning true. Make a note of the out-side diameter so that you can makeboth ends the same size. Now re-verse in the chuck and finish theother end. Tidy up the last fewthou of the bore, turn the end col-lar to the same outer diameter as

the first end and face off the end.Mine came to exactly 2½ “ longwhich I show as 63.5 mm.Now mount the fitting in the 4 jawchuck as shown in Photo. 3 insuch a way that the ½“ outlet isfacing the tailstock and in linewith it. I sat the fitting into the jawgrooves of the chuck and pushed itback with a large rotating centre.Upon tightening the jaws it ransurprisingly accurately. My pipefitting had nicely chamfered endsto the threads which is important ifyou use this method of alignment.If you didn’t make both end col-lars of the larger bore the samesize, then it will not sit at right an-gles in the chuck when aligning bythis method. Bore right throughinto the larger bore and note theinside diameter so that you canmake the second tee fitting exactlythe same size. Mine was bored to21 mm. It is not important if thetwo tees have different bores, itjust makes producing the sleevesand cross arm more convenient.Clean up the outer ring and faceoff the end. Now do the same tothe second pipe fitting.

Joining the Tees TogetherI was now faced with the task ofcompletely filling the inside ofboth pipe fittings with steel tomake a solid unit. First I made thecross bar to join the two pipe fit-tings together. This is made from a118 mm length of 1” Dia. (25.4mm) free cutting mild steel (FC-

Photo. 2 Boring Out for the Pillar Sleeve Photo. 3 Boring Out for the Cross Arm

MS). This was reduced at bothends to a whisker under 21 mmDia. for a length of 23 mm. I usedthe previously bored pipe fittingsas a gauge to ensure a tight slidingfit.Having turned down both ends ofthe cross arm you will be left witha central spacing length of barwhich is 72 mm long and 25.4 mmdiameter. Ensure that the centralpart is long rather than short. Thisshould be just slightly too long togive you 140 mm centres on thefinal pillar arm. Assemble the unitdry and you will have somethingsimilar to that shown in Photo. 4.Clamp together and carefullymeasure between the insides ofthe large bores. Add the diameterof ONE bore and you will have thecentre spacing measurement –which should be just over 140mm. Return the cross bar to thelathe and adjust the shoulder of the

central, spacing, portion so that thethree pieces will clamp together atexactly 140 mm. The central parton mine needed to be 72 mm but amillimetre either way is not im-portant as it may be corrected dur-ing boring of the sleeves. The endsof the cross bar will stick out (or isit in?) into the main bores and thenext task is to curve the ends ofthe cross bar so that they will be asnug fit up to the sleeves whichshall be inserted into the largebores. Mark both pipe tees and theends of the bar so that you canidentify them and ensure that theywill always be mated in the sameway. Also mark the top of thecross bar in some way at both endsof the central portion.Mount the cross bar horizontallyon the milling machine table eitherby securely clamping on V blocksor, as in my case in a chuck on arotary table. Mount with the top

line at the top. Now place the ap-propriate pipe tee on the end of thebar and place parallels and shimsunder the tee so that the tee is sup-ported and the bore is vertical. Ad-just a boring head to the diameterof the pipe bore and lower it intothe tee with the machine at rest.Spin the mill by hand – preferablybackwards, to ensure that the bor-ing tool would in fact bore thebore of the pipe fitting at that set-ting. Lock the Y direction and takea note of the DRO / Dial settingsin the X direction. Raise the mill-ing head to remove the tee andmove the table left in the X direc-tion.Mill the end of the cross armcurved using the boring head, tak-ing small cuts with this intermit-tent cut. Be particularly carefulthat the shaft is clamped securelyif using V blocks. Move the tableslowly right until the DRO / Dials

Photo. 4 The Arm Ready To Insert The Sleeves Photo. 5 Curving The Ends of the Arms

Photo. 6 The Curved Crossbar End Photo. 7 The Parts Before Assembly

read the same as previously noted.If you place the tee on the end ofthe shaft now, it should appear asin Photo. 6. Reverse the shaft andmill the other end in similar fash-ion, making sure that the two endsare in line by utilising the “top”marks on the shaft.

Filling in the BoresThe next job is to make two steelcylinders to completely fill thelarge bores in the pipe fittings. Thebores on mine were 35.2 mm, andmy bar stock is all imperial, so Icut off a length of 134 mm of 1.5”(38mm) Dia. FCMS which wouldmake the two sleeves needed forone arm. I faced , then centredboth ends with small centres and,mounting the bar in the 3 jaw SelfCentring (SC) chuck, using out-side jaws, I turned the bar down to35.1 mm for a distance of 67 mmfrom each end in turn. Parting thebar in the centre gave me two cyl-inders 35.1 mm Dia. x 63.5 mmlong that were a nice tight push fitinto the bores of the pipe fittings.Any reader making these arms willperhaps be tempted to bore thesleeves at this stage whilst the boremay be done in the lathe. Alwaysmore satisfying boring in the lathethan using a boring head in themilling machine. However thereare two reasons to leave the boringuntil after assembly. Firstly, if thesleeves were bored and then in-serted in the arms, you would haveno proof that the bores would be

parallel to each other in the finalassembly or that they would havethe correct centres of 140 mm. Itwould all hinge on the assembly ofthe parts. The second reason fordelaying boring until after assem-bly is dictated by the proposedmethod of clamping the arm to thepillar and to the table support. Theclamping arrangement requiresthat an internally threaded brassbar of ½” (12.7 mm) Dia. is insert-ed into a ½” Dia. hole boredacross the pipe fitting and thesleeve in such a way that the bor-ing of the sleeve also cuts away acurved section of the brass bar.This creates a brass wedge or cot-ter which can be tightened onto thepillar by a bolt drawing the brasscotter into contact with the pillar.At this stage of construction youwill have 5 parts for each arm asillustrated in Photo.7. These mustbe degreased with something likecellulose thinners, lightly smearedwith 2 part Epoxy resin such asAraldite and everything assem-bled, making sure that you assem-ble the correct pipe fitting onto thecorrect end of the cross arm. Itpays to mark with punch marksnot with felt tip that you wouldremove during cleaning. I clampedthe whole thing onto a surfaceplate with a piece of A4 paper toprotect it from the epoxy. The set-up is shown in Photo. 8 and in ad-dition to the “G” cramps clampingthe pipe tees to the surface plate,

there is a woodworking clampholding the two pipe tees firmlyonto the cross arm. Use SLOWAraldite as it is so much strongerthan the RAPID variety and putthe whole thing in a warm placefor curing. At the outset I won-dered about the potential strengthof this construction, but it hasproved to be incredibly strong andrigid. As they say in Lancashire, -“Built like the proverbial brickouthouse”.Now the order of machining willbe that, after assembly with epoxy,the cross holes must be drilled inthe arms first, to take the cotterpins. The brass cotters must bepulled tightly into the holes bybolts, and the main bores under-taken with everything assembledtogether so that the curves are cuton the brass cotters to exactlymatch the bores of the sleeves.

Making New Accurate BoresOnce the epoxy had fully cured Icleaned off the paper and excessadhesive and mounted the assem-bled arm on the milling machinetable. I clamped the arm on twoparallels to raise it clear of the ta-ble and ensured that it was parallelto the T slots in the table. I foundthe centre of one of the blankedoff bores, using an edge finder anddrilled, then reamed a 12 mm holeright through. Then using the dialsor DRO according to your equip-ment, it is necessary to move thetable EXACTLY 140 mm in the x

Photo. 8 Assembling with Epoxy Resin Photo. 9 Using a Wiggler to Centre The Bar

direction and then drill and reamthe 12 mm hole in the other end ofthe arm. Choose a suitable size forthis according to your drills andreamers. I actually used ½”. Youwill also need a piece of accuratebar of this size and I had some ½”silver steel in the drawer. We donot want bigger holes than 12-15mm at this stage as we have to fitthe brass cotter clamping devicesprior to boring out to 25.4 mm Di-ameter.Fig.1 illustrates the relationshipbetween the pinch bolt assemblyand the 1” bore. The drawingshows a ½” (12.7 mm) brass cotter(wedge piece), drawn in by a 6mm bolt. The measurements hereare critical and it is worth takingsome time to be sure that the dis-tance between the centre of themain 1” bore and the centre of thecotter bolt assembly is exactly17.0 mm. Place a short length of12 mm silver steel through one ofthe 12 mm bores that you havecreated and lay the arm on it’s sideon the milling machine table, sup-ported on two parallels as illustrat-ed in Photo 9. I have a DRO onmy milling machine, so I shall de-scribe the method using this, butusing the leadscrew dials is just aseffective although you have to berather more careful.Line up the arm with the T slotsand find the edge of the cross barusing an edge finder or wiggler asin the photo. Touch the edge andzero the DRO Y reading. Cross

over to the back and touch the rearof the cross bar. Half the Y read-ing on the DRO and you now havethe centre of the bar at Y=0. Dothe same with the 12 mm silversteel bar protruding from the borebut setting the X reading. This willgive you the centre of the bore atX=0. Move to X=0 Y=0 and youare at the centre point of the boreand in line with the cross bar. Nowmove the table 17.0 mm to theright in the X direction and this isthe place for the pinch bolt. Lockthe table.The surface of the Tee is curved atthis point, so use a slot drill to cre-ate a ½” (12.7mm) Dia. flat areaand then, after re-checking the dialreadings, start with a slocombe(centre) drill and then drill rightthrough at 6 mm dia. Now use a12mm drill to drill halfwaythrough i.e. to a depth such thatthe large diameter section comesto the centre line of the unit, thenfollow this up with a ½” (12.7mm) reamer for the brass cotter.The bottom of the large hole willbe angled – not flat – but this is okat this stage. We shall use a ½”end mill to flatten this out AFTERboring the main bore. Now moveover to the other end of the armand line up in the same way. Alter-natively move the table (140 - 17– 17 ) = 106 mm (to the right inPhoto.10). Please note howeverthat it is more convenient in use ifyou have the two ball handles onopposing sides of the arm as in

Fig. 2. so with the second hole,simply make a ½” Dia. flat areaand drill right through for thepinch bolt.Turn the arm over and drill andream for the ½” brass cotter on thesecond end, using the through holeto line it up. On the first end it isonly necessary on this side tomake a ½” flat area for a thickbrass washer underneath the ballhandle.The next task is to make the brasscotter clamping devices and to fas-ten them in place prior to boringthe 1” (25.4 mm) bores. I chuckeda length of ½” brass bar in a colletchuck but the 3 jaw is perfectlyadequate. Drill 5.2mm - tappingsize for a 6 mm thread for a depthof 25 mm and run straight in witha sharp plug tap guiding it fromthe tailstock. Chamfer the end ofthe bar slightly and part off to alength of 18 mm. Reverse thepiece in the chuck and remove anyburr on the other end. After part-ing off I ran the tap down by handagain just to clean up the threadafter parting off. Note that theouter end should be chamfered foraesthetic reasons, but the inner endis left virtually square. Make thesecond cotter in the same way, andwhile you have the brass barhandy, make two thick brasswashers 6 mm thick. This timedrill through at clearance size i.e. 6mm.Put the cotters in the holes in theTees and use two temporary 6 mm

Photo. 10 Reaming the Hole for the Brass Cotter

bolts with the thick brass washersto pull the cotters tightly into theholes ready to bore the main 1”bores. The inner ends of the cot-ters should pull in to the centreline of the arm.

Boring the Main BoresHaving bored and fitted the cot-ters, the next task is to bore themain bores (1” in my case) whichwill also shape the curved clamp-ing surface on the brass cotter.Mount the tapping arm on paral-lels on the the milling table paral-lel to the T slots once again, butupright this time as shown in Pho-to. 11.Bore out, being particularly care-ful as you approach the final diam-eter. Test regularly for size usingan accurate test bar, taking smallcuts in the final stages to eliminateany spring in the boring bar. Thephoto shows me using a TungstenCarbide tipped tool, but it didn’tlike the intermittent nature of thecut when shaping the brass cotterand I finished up making a ½”boring bar to fit my boring head,fitted with a tool steel cutter insert.Move across EXACTLY 140 mmand bore the second end. This isyour chance to ensure that the twobores are exactly parallel and atexactly the correct centres.Once you have completed themain bores, remove the cotters en-suring that you know which brass

cotter goes intowhich hole. Mountthe arm once moreon it’s side and run aslot drill or end milldown the cotter holesto make the bottomof the hole square.This will allow thebrass cotter to pullfurther into the hole ensuring thata clamping force can be achieved.

Ball HandlesOf course you may fit any style ofhandle that appeals to you, but ballhandles look so pretty and if youhave a ball turning attachment,then I recommend that you fitthese and make them in a batch, -I made five. The method of turn-ing the balls will depend uponyour ball turning attachment, so Ishall not describe this, but Fig. 4shows the dimensions that I usedand the four stages of makingthem. The reason for the shape ofthe central part is to allow the jawsof the vice to grip the central sec-tion over the top of an alreadyformed ball in order to turn thesecond ball. Once you havereached stage 3, you will need aspring cup which fits into the 3jaw, holding the large ball andpreferably a female rotating centrein the tailstock to hold the smallball. This is one good reason foralways standardising the size of

your ball handles. Once thus sup-ported, turn away the centre por-tion to an appropriate taper usingeither the top slide or a taper turn-ing attachment.In order to mill the flats on the ballhandles, and to drill for the 6 mmstuds, I made two square pieces ofMDF and grooved out the shape ofthe ball handle in such a way thatthe ball handles could be sand-wiched between the two MDFpieces in the milling vice. Eachball handle was thus held at thecorrect angle with the top of thebig ball protruding so that it couldbe milled away. I then drilled ablind hole 5.2 mm diameter in thecentre of the ball and tapped it 6mm. for the studding. Whilst thusclamped I screwed in a 6 mm x 45mm setscrew and tightened it up.Transferring the ball handle to thebench vice, I sawed off the head ofthe setscrew, then smoothed theend on the belt sander to leave mycompleted ball handle.Photo. 12 shows the ball handlesin various stages of production.

Photo. 11 Boring the Main Bores Using a BoringHead

The StandThe baseplate was adapted froman existing metal baseplate res-cued from a skip, in keeping withthe policy of using what is tohand, but if making from wood, Iwould suggest using good qualitymarine plywood. You will seefrom the photographs that I madea metal fitting to bolt to the base-plate onto which I can lower thebottom arm when riveting or usingnumber stamps. It is kinder tohammer onto something solid thanto let the arm take the strain.The base for the pillar was turnedfrom a circular piece of cast iron(a small backplate casting) fromthe “odd bits” drawer and it wasthen bored to be a close fit ontothe pillar which was 1” stainlesssteel bar. A 3mm hole was tappedin the side of the base and thenwas fitted with a grub screw whichbears onto a small flat milled onto

the end of the pillar. The flat isimportant to stop the grub screwfrom marking the shaft and caus-ing removal to be difficult. Thebase was fitted to the baseplatewith four 6mm bolts.

The Table and MountingBossAs already mentioned, I used aMyford faceplate for the table andI therefore made a boss with a My-ford nose on it to support the table.This has the advantage that I canimmediately unscrew the tablefrom the pillar tool and fit mylathe chucks or collets in place ofthe table. To make the boss, Imounted a 100 mm piece of 40mm diameter F.C.M.S in the lathechuck and turned a replica of mylathe mandrel nose onto it. I en-sured that it was a good fit byscrewing my lathe catch plate ontoit. Once I was happy with thenose, I drilled the bar right through

at ½” dia. using a taper drill in thetailstock.Once the nose is created, the nextprocess is to turn down the rest ofthe bar to fit into the end of thepillar tool arm – in my case 1” dia.So that this was concentric withthe pre-turned nose, I once morefitted the lathe catchplate to thenose and then reversed the wholething, bolting it to the lathe face-plate. Take some time ensuringthat the catchplate is running trueby “clocking” it with a dial indica-tor. Once it is running true, theshaft may be turned. The setup isshown in Photo. 13 and the fin-ished boss is shown in Photo.14.

The Drilling HeadAs already mentioned I had res-cued a battered ”Cloth Drill” fromthe skip and I made the drillinghead by adding parts to this andrepairing the damage. For curioussouls who wonder what a cloth

Photo. 12 Ball Handles in Production Photo. 13 Turning the Table Boss.

Photo. 14 The Finished Table Boss . Photo. 15 Mounting the Drilling Head.

drill is, it is used in the clothingtrade to drill through the fronts ofgarments to show the sewing ma-chinist where to fit the pockets.Thus (hopefully) you don’t buy asuit with one pocket higher thanthe other one. As no-one else islikely to have one of these I shallnot detail the conversion to a drillhead. However, Photo 15. showshow the device was mounted bymaking a single arm end, reversingit, and then attaching a plate withcountersunk screws to hold theunit in place.

Holding the TapsMost tapping tools that I haveseen, use a chuck to hold the tap,but I hate using a chuck as they donot adequately hold a hardened tapand the result is often a tap whichspins in the chuck.My favourite tap holder is anEclipse tap holder number 142 andit holds taps from 12 BA at thesmaller end and up to 7 mm at thelarger end. This covers most of thetapping that I do, although an ad-ditional holder will eventually bemade for my larger taps. I havetried cheap tap holders of Chineseorigin and have found them verybasic and inaccurate. I therefore

purchased an “Eclipse 142” andmounted it into a holder as shownin Fig.3. The handle of theEclipse Tap Wrench is case hard-ened and is 13.8mm Dia. so Ibored out the end of a silver steelbar and fitted the eclipse into itusing Araldite, 2 part epoxy. Iused 5/8” bar for this and it is aclose fit to fit this into either 5/8”bar or 16 mm bar. The bar is asliding fit into a 1” sleeve whichclamps into the pillar tool. Thesleeve has been made such that thebore at the top is chamfered at anacute angle. When a small “O”ring is stretched onto the bar, itcan be rolled up or down the bar,and when the bar is lowered in thesleeve, the “O” ring traps in thechamfered area to stop the bar fall-ing with a crash and possiblybreaking a small tap. Fig. 3. illus-trates this. The handle is an oldlathe handle from a car boot sale,in keeping with the project as awhole. The handle is held onto aturned end of the shaft with a 6mm countersunk setscrew.Note : - the Eclipse holder willslide out of the 5/8” or 16 mmbore if the cap is removed in orderto change tools. It will slidethrough the main 1” bore with the

closing cap in place. A substantialhandle as shown is great for tap-ping with large taps such as 6 mm,but I have made a more sensitiveknurled knob 1” dia. for use withsmaller taps such as 5 BA or be-low.Photo 16 and Photo 17 show thefinished article in both Tappingand Drilling configuration. In nor-mal use, both heads are kept on thecolumn all the time and the unusedhead is swung to one side out ofthe way. One head was removedfor clarity in one of the photos. Iam still unsure whether or not tospray the arms and the base withgreen Hammerite paint, or whetherto just keep it oiled and covered.This project has created a mostuseful workshop tool by usingthings that were mainly to hand. Ihave made many of the measure-ments vague in the assumptionthat readers wishing to make thiswould also adapt the sizes accord-ing to whatever they have availa-ble and according to whether theywork in Metric or Imperial.

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Photo.16 The Pillar Tool Usedfor Tapping .

Photo.17 The Pillar Tool Usedfor Drilling.