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Morse taper question "Will the sky fall on my head if...

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bogstandard:
Hi John,

You do get some wierd ideas, trying to beat the manufacturers way of doing things.

I fully understand where you are coming from with this, I raised this point with my machine supplier and was told, 'that is just the way it is'.

I did a load of accurate measuring, and came to the conclusion that what I would be gaining in spindle movement, to me, it just wasn't worth the hassle, I will just move the tailstock a little closer to the chuck when required.

It looks like you are determined to go for it, so, as long as you don't try modifying the machine itself to get you where you want to be, I would say try it, but be careful. If you get an MT stuck 'up the spout', don't try to belt it out and free it off from the nose, a couple of bad side knocks will introduce deformation that equates to years of wear, but wind the spindle fully out to remove it, and come in from the back with a drift.

While you are at the tailstock end, maybe you should consider this dead easy mod.

http://madmodder.net/index.php?topic=424.0

Bogs

John Hill:

--- Quote ---You do get some wierd ideas, trying to beat the manufacturers way of doing things.
--- End quote ---

Actually Bogs I am just trying to help the manufacturer by finishing his job! :coffee:

It is the drilling arbor that is the most annoying, first of all I have to crounch down to read the metric scale (the most visible position is occupied by some archaic scale apparently calibrated by the width of King Arthur's thumb) then I have to subtract some awkward number like 19.5 from the reading! :doh: I am too old for that sort of thing!

I read your anti-rotating-tailstock modification with some interest but so far that has not been an issue for me. However I do have a nice clean rag hanging by that end of the lathe that is used for nothing but wiping the tapers before they go in.

There is another but slightly less annoying issue related to tail stock and centres and that is that when I put some work on the faceplate it would be nice to run up the tail stock to get a fairly close centring before doing the final positioning with the dial gauge when it needs that sort of precision.  But on my lathe with my centres I often cant move the carriage far enough left for the centre to reach the work, the problem is partly my making with DRO mounts etc.   I think the answer to this particular issue is to turn up an extra length 'centre' which is used for this purpose only.

bogstandard:
John,

I had the same problem as yourself, and raised the issue with the suppliers.

Unlike yours, I couldnt even get the toolpost anywhere near the faceplate. So while they were preparing a replacement machine for me, I had them remove the coiled spring leadscrew guard. That cured the problem, but the tailstock dead centre still showed up as a problem.


The troublesome guard




The problem it caused




In the middle is a standard dead centre, the one on the right is a commercial live centre, notice how much longer it is, that would solve your reach problem. The one on the left is one I knocked up out of a few left over commercial bits to make a slimline live centre, so that I could get in a lot tighter with the toolpost.




John

John Hill:
  I have got a live centre!  I just never thought of getting it out for that particular purpose!
 :doh: :doh: :doh:

sbwhart:
John H

I use a Live centre to reach the face plate for setting up it works fine  :thumbup:

John B

I like the look of that slime line Live centre I'll give it an eye ball next time I'm over.

Stew

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