You may have noticed a lack of modelling content of late? We have had a couple of bereavements in Old station Yard, one my immediate neighbour, a fellow 7mm scale modeller and the other next door but one (actually adjacent to Old Station Yard rather than in it, but still a near neighbour). This has rather dampened my enthusiasm a bit. 3D drawing has been a distraction but I also made a small upgrade to my parting tool holder for the Unimat. Due it small size I had to buy a mini parting blade and this is what it looks like below The bit that's supposed to hold the blade and keep it from moving is this bit which is for all the world like a bent washer. After parting a few items off I noted that on some of them the back of the part was actually convex because the cutting force had bent the "washer" and allowed the parting tool to move to one side as it was cutting. Having bought my long length of steel from Wickes I decided that I would look at making something a little sturdier. This is what I came up with. The slot is wider than the blade because my smallest milling cutter is 3mm but I do have some brass bar that will fit shold I need to take out any slack. Here it is fitted. There is a small shim in between the fixture and the tool holder which helps apply an even pressure. The fixture is thick enough not to bend under pressure and long enough to hold the blade inline with the tool holder without being able to twist while cutting. Next I plan to make a locking handle for my tail stock. It currently locks via a cap head M6 screw which isn't always very convenient.
