Mini Lathe tailstock improvement

[cfellows]

I've mulled over ways to improve the tailstock on my mini lathe since the day I bought it. It just doesn't have a big enough foot to stay steady when you're sliding it up and down the ways. Ideally, I'd have just liked to scrap the whole thing and start over. But, that has a pretty good chance of turning out poorly, if and when I ever got it finished. The second alternative is to make a new foot for it, but again, seemed like a lot of work with a reasonably slim chance of pulling it off in a satisfactory way. Today I got the idea of simply adding a sled or outrigger to the existing setup. Low cost, simple, reasonable chance of working... I like it!

I started with a scrap piece of 1" x 3/8" thick steel 5" long and bored a couple of holes along one edge.

Then I lashed everything up to transfer the hole locations to the base of the tailstock.

The finished holes drilled and tapped in the tailstock.

And here's the new outrigger attached and in place on the lathe.

It actually improves the stability of the tailstock quit a bit. Still not rock solid, but a whole lot better. It would also be possible to drill and tap a couple of holes in the upper part of the outrigger and install some set screws to help adjust the position of the tailstock laterally.

Chuck

 

[rebush]

Chuck: Great idea for a easy fix. Thanks for posting. Roger

 

[MCRIPPPer]

cool. only problem i can see is that you loose the ability to move the tailstock right up to the carriage.

 

[cfellows]

cool. only problem i can see is that you loose the ability to move the tailstock right up to the carriage.

Yep, and that could be a problem, particularly if you only have a 10" bed. I suspect that's why the manufacturer designed such a short tailstock base in the first place.

However, the outrigger can easily be removed for those occasions where you need to get closer to the cross slide. And it's easy enough to re-install when you're done.

Chuck