Die Holder for Watchmakers lathe

I've been mostly hand threading the various screws and parts that I've been making on my Watchmakers lathe and have been envying the very useful die holders I've been seeing for mini lathes and full sized lathes. None of these are small enough to use comfortably on my lathe. As with most everything I've been adding to the lathe, I decided to make one and the results are below.

Watchmakers lathe sliding die holder mounted on tailstock ram

It carries a brass insert for the smaller dies but can also accept a full 1" die with the insert removed.

Watchmakers lathe die holder with 7/8 die adapter installed

I made the body from aluminum and pressed a brass tube into the back of it that I bored out to be a sliding fit over my 8MM tailstock ram. This insured there'd be no galling of the incredibly close tolerance shaft while giving me very accurate longitudinal movement to advance the die by hand.

Inserting watchmakers lathe die holder onto tailstock ram

I used the new radius cutting attachment I made (another post on this site) to cut the ball ends and ogee on the leverage spokes.

Radius cutting attachment milling the ball end on die holder spoke

I sized them to just miss the bed as they rotate. They give me lots of turning power and having them every 90 degrees means not having to continually insert and remove a shaft in holes around the perimeter of the holder as I've seen on some designs that need the greater length for bigger dies.

Watchmakers lathe die holder rotates freely above bed

As with all these projects, It's such a pleasure to use the die holder as it makes the threading of parts (up to about 1/4-20) very simple, highly accurate and fun.

PS: After living with the completed Die Holder for a few days I decided to make a few aesthetic tweaks to get some of the edges to reflect better and to simplify the shaft down to a single diameter. It was also an excuse to use the radius cutter but for a concave cut this time. It eased the transition from the 7/8 die adaptor to the main body nicely.  I think I'm done now...

Watchmakers lathe die holder

Watchmakers lathe die holder

Cheers, Kevin