Tailstock morse taper damaged. What to do?

[black85vette]

First, this is an Atlas 12", early 70's vintage. I was tracking down an issue with my drill chuck not always centering and suspected the MT2 inside the piston (is that the right word???) I coated a dead center with layout dye, put it in and turned and sure enough there was a solid ring in one spot. Checked it visually and there it was about 1/2" in. Looks like the previous owner (I would not do such a thing ;D) stalled a drill or something and it spun around and scored a grove inside.

Now the question is: how do I fix it?

 

[ozzie46]

I know they make morse taper reamers so that might be the way to go. Maybe some one else has a better idea. Or how about wrapping some fine wet and dry sand paper around a taper and gently twist it to clean it up. Just an idea.

Ron

 

[Quickj]

On mine, which had a similar problem, I borrowed an MT2 roughing reamer and an MT2 finishing reamer and cleaned them up.

Unfortunately, the Home Shop guy I was able to borrow them from is no longer active in the hobby and I don't know what happened to all of his tools.

This doesn't help you to much, but if you check around at MSC, McMaster Carr, Grizzly, etc. you may be able to source an MT2 reamer cheap.

 

[Blogwitch]

As everyone has already told you, MT reamers are fairly easy and cheap to come by. Don't use it for reaming the tailstock, just to clean up the damage.

But to stop it happening again, follow this post and it will stop that spinning chuck blues.

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


Blogs

 

[black85vette]

Nice post on fixing the problem Blogs. Thanks.

Now to find a reamer.

 

[black85vette]

Problem solved. I was heading down the reamer track and called my friend who works in Tool and Die and asked if he had a reamer. He said he didn't have any but asked what I was doing. In the end he suggested that I did not need to clean up the entire taper, but just the one ridge that was causing a problem. He suggested that I set the compound to the angle of the taper and use a boring bar to just knock down the high point of the ridge.

So here are the pics. I used a DTI to verify I was set parallel to the side of the taper. Then took the boring bar in after measuring the distance so I had it right over the problem area. Then slowly moved the tool until it just touched and took it a few thou back and forth with the compound. Verified with the layout dye and I now have good contact over the length of the taper. Best yet, my drill chuck sits nice and solid with no rocking action. woohoo1

While I am at it. I have included a picture of one of my favorite gadgets. It is an accessory to the Mini Mag flashlight and just slips over the lens. It is a fiber optic tip that allows you to get light down into small tight areas. It is flexible so you don't have to look around the flashlight to see. I used it tonight to get light down inside the ram so I could watch the tip of the boring bar and be sure everything was going right.

Next plan is to do Blogs mod to the ram to prevent this sort of problem. Thm: Thanks for the help guys!

 

[ariz]

sometime the solution is easier than what it appeared at first glance
well done job black85

BTW where did you buy that flexible light?

 

[ozzie46]

Nice fix. Yes please do tell about the light bit.


Ron

 

[black85vette]

Nice fix. Yes please do tell about the light bit.

OK, but don't blame me when you run off and spend a bunch of money! ;D

The company that makes this also makes a bunch of other cool items. It is like a geek gone mad thinking up stuff that might be handy. I have several other products from them and find them very useful. One that I like a lot is the LED conversion for the Mini Mag. I get the quality and durability of the Mini Mag and the battery life of an LED flashlight. You can find some of their products in sporting goods stores. Academy Sports has some and so does Bass Pro Shops in there flashlight area.

So here you go:

http://www.niteize.com/

 

[ozzie46]

I have the led conversion kit but can't figure how to get my mini mag apart without destroying it. Go figure, I can make a working steam engine but can't take a flashlite apart. :big: :big: :big: Could you help?

Ron

 

[black85vette]

Here is the LED conversion parts:

Remove the entire front part to get to the lamp. Then remove the lens and bezel to replace the reflector. Stock parts are below the flashlight and conversion parts are on the top. An optional part is the off/on switch which replaces the bottom piece that holds the batteries in. Nice if you need to work it with one hand.

One side note: because you remove the single point light and the reflector you no longer have the beam focus from wide to spot. You get a medium wide soft light instead.

 

[chillybilly]

Top job on that morse taper can be a real bummer those type of things .

As to the LED torch mod ,best thing i ever did to my maglite ,the standard arrangemet of bulb was crap ,i use them for my job and it always failed at the most inconvinient moment eg roof void you just climbed your way into hunting for a wire or something .

Another tip on the maglite front if you have issues with it being intemittent ,is remove the spring in the base bit and clean out the corrosion and gunk to maintain the electrical continuity ,found that one out the hardway

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I just performed the "Bogstandard" trick on my tailstock. What a neat idea!!!! Thanks for the link and thank you Bogstandard.----Brian

 

[ozzie46]

Thanks for the pics on the lite. It was the lens part I couldn't figure out. It didn't seem to me that it came apart there, but I see it does.

Ron

 

[black85vette]

Sweet! Did Blogs mod to the tailstock ram. Took less than an hour. Time well invested.