• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.

Tailstock Taper Attachment

Not sure what you mean by "standard taper attachment"? I had a tailstock taper attachment (not the one you posted) for my mini-lathe. They work well enough.
 
By "standard taper attachment" I mean the chassis mounted ones that attach to the cross slide. I think your SM has one.
 
YotaBota said:
By "standard taper attachment" I mean the chassis mounted ones that attach to the cross slide. I think your SM has one.
Click to expand...

OK, Ya TSTAs work ok. One draw back to them is that you have to turn between centers. Also a bit of a PITA to setup.
I made a bunch of MT2 tapers on my mini using one.
 
No, but I've monkeyed around with several makeshift gadgets that attempted to do the same thing I'm almost wishing I bit the bullet. The thought of loosening & displacing my nicely dialed in tailstock for taper turning is about as appealing as removing my mill vise & changing my spindle nod & tilt while I'm at it. They are all reposition-able but it takes time to get back in alignment again. I acquired a small diamter boring head that I might press into service.

One thing to know about those offset methods you don't read about often. Technically you should be drilling the center hole in the part with a bellmouth curved profile as opposed to the straight 60-deg profile we all have. Two cones don't make a right HaHa. Turns out these profiles aren't exactly abundant, probably because most people (unlike me & apparently you too) got a legitimate taper attachment. I suspect for shallow tapers it might not be the end of the world. But I think why some people spec certain kinds of high temp grease or tip get shot is due to this.
 
It's a live center on this attachment so no fear of it getting hot and shot. I don't have a legit taper either which is why I'm looking at these ones. Agree that offsetting the tailstock is a pita, just like the mill vise and tilt.
 
YotaBota said:
It's a live center on this attachment.
Click to expand...
Ah, I missed that detail. Maybe part of the new & improved?

These are the center drills vs typa-a conventional I was referring to.
 

Attachments

  • SNAG-11-4-2020 0002.webp
    SNAG-11-4-2020 0002.webp
    13.1 KB · Views: 0
  • SNAG-11-4-2020 0003.webp
    SNAG-11-4-2020 0003.webp
    16 KB · Views: 2
  • SNAG-11-4-2020 0004.webp
    SNAG-11-4-2020 0004.webp
    11.4 KB · Views: 2
YYCHobbyMachinist said:
What does that mean?
Click to expand...

We mean a taper attachment mounted to the rear of lathe with the settable angle bar & the assembly drives the cross slide as the carriage traverses. My cross slide is fixed via the leadscrew. Usually lathes with 'real' taper attachments have some designed mechanism to release from the leadscrew, but they all vary in how they accomplish this. I naively assumed I could buy a bolt-on later only to discover lots more parts are required.
 
The biggest issue I can see with any of these off setting tailstock taper attachments is that the offset must be exactly in a parallel plane to the lathe bed. Otherwise I think the taper will not be a true cone, rather than a hour glass shape.

Using the “old“ TS offsetting method gets around that problem.

A radiused center drill would help for sure.
 
Good point Rudy. I've seen pics of boring heads where they first put a level accross the holes for cutter shanks because there isn't a great way to do this on a round head. Of course you are still assuming no rotation of the taper shank in TS quill.

The Amazon unit is rectangular stock so lends itself to the bubble level verification much easier. I like the live center idea. All in favor of YotaBota buying one to report findings, raise your hand LOL
 
Instead of the bell mouth centre hole and corresponding centre I think have seen where some have used two standard centre holes with a ball bearing in between to give the flexibility for the angle. Never tried it myself, and the idea seems somewhat terrifying actually, but I think it is done in some cases.

-frank
 
YYCHobbyMachinist said:
I thought you had a 9" Utilathe? What pieces of the taper attachment are you missing?
Click to expand...
All of it, my SM 9" doesn't have any pieces of a taper attachment.
The taper in the TS would have to be tight to hold the unit parallel after being leveled and then hope it doesn't sag.
PeterT said:
All in favor of YotaBota buying one to report findings
Click to expand...
Oh sure,,, put on the pressure,,,,
PeterT - your the "idea" guy, I vote for you to buy one and report, lol
 
Interesting tool! Maybe a little project?

If live center is not needed one could use boring head to do an offset. Or maybe even a large boring head could accommodate some light duty live center.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top