DIY Die Filer - Sherline Based

Have been wanting and looking for a Die filer for a long time; the price of even the most clapped-out, used, rusty piece of junk is $500 and up.

My most recent search finally led me to the DIY world.

Some of these are good machines in that they are robust however I wanted and needed a smaller version.

I had an old spare Sherline motor/spindle assem. and realized that this was a good starting point.

One of the things that I do not like about any of the available devices out there is the height; they are all a mile high and require a lot of space for the "once a year usage they get.

I wanted to design and make a very low profile machine.

The key to the low profile is having a sliding file clamp instead of the file clamp and the pin fixed together. This requires the file to be clamped off to the side of the pin.

The offset of the file is on the down-stroke side of the system.

This is the system at full up, I have exactly 1" stroke.

Instead of slots (which I hate making) I went with a 0 - 3 - 6 degrees set of holes.

The thing with the Sherline is the beautiful speed control!

LittleMachineShop Mini Lathe 5200 - Auto Feed - Adjustable Stop

I looked at what many other great minds did and took my own approach to the auto feed stop mechanism.

I had an old micrometer base from another project and decided that it would give me the easiest adjustability.

The innovation here is the L bracket with a slot
The difficulty is the height that is available; there is not much!

Under the mount shown above is a large thumb screw to tighten the mounting to the L bracket

I haven't had much time with it so we will see

LittleMachineShop Mini Lathe 5200 - Lever Action Tail Stock

When I got the LMS 5200 I knew I wanted to add the tailstock lever to the tools options

I came up with this design that fits in to my "retrofit" theory

I ordered another complete tailstock and designed a system that I think meets all requirements

The main complication is being able to get the MT2 OUT after you slam it home

The tailstock converts pretty easily

After using it a couple of times I realized that the small thumb wheel was totally inadequate because it has to be turned in the 1.5" to engage the MT and kick it out so I went back to the original hand wheel.
I remade the lever out of 0.25" aluminum and now have a much more robust product.

I get over 1.5" of travel and retain the exact features of the original tailstock

Basic cad design