Taper turning attachment

[JCSteam]

Hello all, been doing some more internet searching in the hope to acquire a bit more usable knowledge in using my lathe and setting up.

I came across an article which shows a taper turning attachment. Useful for many things including making your own tooling. But also if a part needs a long taper it helps instead of disturbing the tailstock alignment.*

I was wondering if anyone else has made one of these for their lathe? I have only come across one image of a finished one.

 

[ODgreenK5]

At one shop we had a lathe with a non-adjustable tailstock. We had a old boring head on a morse taper, and used that by machining a center for it.

 

[goldstar31]

Jon

Got one! Mine is a wee bit more sophisticated as it is a Jabus No2 MT one.
It has adjustable 'pegs' for 1, 2, 3 Morse taper, a J( whatever that is) and a BS No7 taper.

If I recall, there is one in an old Practical or Popular Mechanics which also has the early Cleeve swing tool holder.

Hemingwaykits in the UK has a kit for one.

With a little 'gerfiddleing', you can make a rather nice adjustable boring head with one.

And before you ask- the answer is 'Yes'

Cheers

N

 

[Lance]

You can buy them off of ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Turning-To...674868?hash=item3d52c56b74:g:vYoAAOSwc7RaLiTw

 

[JCSteam]

Lance at £70+post I'll have a go at making one. I was wondering if someone else had made one ��

 

[goldstar31]

The Bradley one needs a dovetail cutter but there is an easier( but not better on) in Popular Mechanics Sept 1951 Page 212.

An apprentice thing which people like that had to do as they had little or no money to buy their own tools.

 

[Wizard69]

Hello all, been doing some more internet searching in the hope to acquire a bit more usable knowledge in using my lathe and setting up.

There are several approaches to turning tapers on a lathe. Im not a big fan of offsetting the tailstock though. It works of course but one you have yhe offset cut done you most likely have to immediately set the tailstock back or risk forgetting to do so. Id most certainly consider all the options before building something.

Note i realize the referenced attachment eliminates the need to zero in the tail stock after use. However each time you use it getting the taper right is an adventure.

I came across an article which shows a taper turning attachment. Useful for many things including making your own tooling. But also if a part needs a long taper it helps instead of disturbing the tailstock alignment.*

Such an arrangement is useful so we cant dismiss the attachment out of hand. I might ask though what if you want to do an internal taper.

I was wondering if anyone else has made one of these for their lathe? I have only come across one image of a finished one.

I haven't made one yet. To be honest im kinda torn between building a more conventional taper cutting attachment or doing an electronic leadscrew.

Going electronic, either by an electronic leadscrew or a full CNC conversion, offers a lot of unique capabilities that would otherwise require the fabrication of much tooling.

On the other hand a conventional taper attachment is fairly easy to build. Such an attachment makes it easy to make matching internal and external tapers. By conventional i meant the type of attachment that has an adjustable linear slide and a method of driving the cross slide in and out. Usually this mechanism is mounted on the back side of the lathe. Id post a pic but im on my cell phone at the moment.

 

[Gordon]

I made one a couple of years ago thinking that it be handy but I have yet to use it. One problem is the difficulty in setting it. An offset of x on a piece y long results in a different taper with an offset of x on a piece y+1 long or even y+.1

 

[goldstar31]

I made one a couple of years ago thinking that it be handy but I have yet to use it. One problem is the difficulty in setting it. An offset of x on a piece y long results in a different taper with an offset of x on a piece y+1 long or even y+.1

I appreciate your comments and go on further to mention that the point to hold the would be taper should be probably held with ball bearings if the tapers have female ends and waisted if male pointed.

It appears in only the best books!:hDe:

N

 

[JCSteam]

Wizard I've seen the conventional ones where the long slide is mounted at the rear of the lathe, and the leadscrew for the cross slide is disconnected. The crosslide then been fixed to follow the bar set to the required taper angle.

I have a job in mind for this taper attachment which will only require an external taper. So if I can make up something pretty quick (me saying that really doesn't hold merit lol) then I should easily be able to switch between drilling, Taper, and turning easily.

 

[petertha]

Nice design here (down near the bottom of web page). I believe he sells his plans & quite reasonably.
https://rossbotics.wixsite.com/machiningtechniques/shop-tools

More detailed build post of same design
http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/tail-stock-taper-turning-attachment-66218#post106582

 

[ShopShoe]

There is also this project, here:

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/showthread.php?t=16818&highlight=Taper+Turning+Attachment

--ShopShoe

 

[petertha]

Such an arrangement is useful so we cant dismiss the attachment out of hand. I might ask though what if you want to do an internal taper.

Internal taper cutting is a limitation to the tailstock offset method, either displacing the lathe tailstock itself or adding a boring-head-like attachment that accomplishes the same thing. Both depend on the tailstock center being engaged or referenced to the work via center drill. You also cant cut OD threads along the taper this way.

Cutting internal tapers using a boring bar & 'slider' taper attachment is essentially the same as conventional boring except now the cross table is simultaneously moving along the taper angle as it traverses.

Before anyone embarks on a journey of making a rear slider bar attachment for the lathe that moves the moves the carriage along the same set angle, spend some time examining your lathe lead screw assembly. In order for this to work, your carriage has to somehow dislocate from the lead screw nut. On same lathes this is easy, in fact they are designed for this. Other lathes, not so. It can be quite the ordeal to accomplish this & may disturb some set up & fit that doesn't like to be disturbed. On many big boy lathes this is more sophisticated assembly with a telescoping lead screw - you pull some levers or turn some knobs that puts it into 'taper attachment mode' which is a separate procedure than simply setting the bar ay some angle.

I'm going with the modified tailstock boring head method. More to come.

 

[deverett]

There are a couple of taper turning attachments on HomeMade Tools
http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/taper-attachment-11-logan-lathe-7997#post9553
http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/lathe-taper-attachment-easy-way-49907#post71496 (This looks a better idea)
Both look simple to make. Whether they are any better than the tailstock gizmo, I wouldn't like to say; may be others would?!

Dave
The Emerald Isle

 

[goldstar31]

There are a couple of taper turning attachments on HomeMade Tools
http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/taper-attachment-11-logan-lathe-7997#post9553
http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/lathe-taper-attachment-easy-way-49907#post71496 (This looks a better idea)
Both look simple to make. Whether they are any better than the tailstock gizmo, I wouldn't like to say; may be others would?!

Dave
The Emerald Isle

Having actually made one, many years ago and to a similar design to one 'cast' for a Myford ML7 by one 'Slangbela', I feel that the difficulties on an earlier ML4 would prove insurmountable.

The reply is penned within sight of the ML4's Big Daddy, the Myfotd ML10 which has a similar but larger vee' d bed.

My take but taken closer to 'the coal face', of course.

Norman

 

[deverett]

I thought the ML4 had a flat bed like all other Myfords, in which case the two mounting arms of the second linked TTA would simply clamp to the bed in the required position. They are not bolted to the rear of the bed a la the Myford accessory.

Dave
The Emerald Isle

 

[goldstar31]

I thought the ML4 had a flat bed like all other Myfords, in which case the two mounting arms of the second linked TTA would simply clamp to the bed in the required position. They are not bolted to the rear of the bed a la the Myford accessory.

Dave
The Emerald Isle

You are quite right about the 'flat bed' and the lack of appropriate bolting holes.

However, it is not quite engineering to have to clamp across the two shears.
When I overhauled a '4', I found that it was quite-- err-- fragile. JC Steam in an earlier 'epistle' ran into difficult tailstock problems akin to what we are discussing here.

I have FOUR lathes if I count my watchmaker's one and remain quite unabashed because I foresaw the problem and have both Clarkson and a Stent tool and cutter grinders which have adjustable table tops and the Quorn and the new so called Universal grinder do most of the antics which would grace the Royal Ballet:thumbup:

As I keep repeating to Jon, he must acquire the basics of classical mathematics and physics before trying to grasp the rudiments of engineering.

It's a bit:wall::wall::wall: but 'Roll on Death and let's have a bash at the angels'


Regards

N