Coning shafts on Hightower lathe

J

john coloccia

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Curious how everyone cones shafts if you have a Hightower lathe? If I just use a standard butt taper, it's too much of an angle to take the shaft down very much. If I use the shaft taper I like, it takes a ton off the front of the shaft but barely touches the joint end until I get pretty close to final size.

Is there a simple technique for doing this that doesn't require changing the taper bars around?

Thanks!
 
john coloccia said:
Curious how everyone cones shafts if you have a Hightower lathe? If I just use a standard butt taper, it's too much of an angle to take the shaft down very much. If I use the shaft taper I like, it takes a ton off the front of the shaft but barely touches the joint end until I get pretty close to final size.

Is there a simple technique for doing this that doesn't require changing the taper bars around?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

An offsetting live center will get you what you want...

https://www.cuesmith.com/off-setting-live-center-for-cutting-tapers-3-8.html
 
How hard is it to offset the butt taper bar ?
Put a stopper for the shaft and butt taper settings.
That way you can switch easily on the fly.

Fwi, I don't cone shafts anymore.
Grain orientation is more important than cutting 1" rods to .750" end cones.
At .650" ends, tapered, I can work around grain orientation better.
And from years of doing it that way, I have concluded coning is just a practice that was handed down and followed by most makers.
A few other makers I know don't cone now either.
Heck, two of them get them down at .580" tapered from 1" rods.
 
I used to just start with the pro taper bar and go. But I found out the sooner in the process you eliminate all wobble from the shaft the more likely they will stay straight longer. So coning does that right off the bat on most shaft dowels.
 
JoeyInCali said:
How hard is it to offset the butt taper bar ?
Put a stopper for the shaft and butt taper settings.
That way you can switch easily on the fly.

Fwi, I don't cone shafts anymore.
Grain orientation is more important than cutting 1" rods to .750" end cones.
At .650" ends, tapered, I can work around grain orientation better.
And from years of doing it that way, I have concluded coning is just a practice that was handed down and followed by most makers.
A few other makers I know don't cone now either.
Heck, two of them get them down at .580" tapered from 1" rods.
Click to expand...

I guess it's pretty easy to offset the butt taper bar. My own experience with a different kind of woodworking tends to match up with your experience, i.e. the wood's going to move wherever it wants regardless and you just need enough left over to cleanup the wobbles. Being so new to it I'm still kind of cautious, though. :)

Definitely starting to see why everyone seems to have more than one lathe. :thumbup:
 
john coloccia said:
Definitely starting to see why everyone seems to have more than one lathe. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Yep! I believe you were warned. It's not a cheap hobby!

I have two tapers on my shaft taper lathe. I start all shaft on my jump break taper. Which isn't far off a cone.

Larry
 
True coning is actually not the best method in my opinion either. An initial taper that takes my shafts to .810" in two passes and cuts the joint to .960" with the front foot being almost straight like a pro taper is what I do. But on manual machines this means you need an additional shaft taper bar set up that way. The Deluxe Cue Smith does offer the option of multiple interchangeable shaft bars. But since most don't have that option on manual machines coning is the next best and easiest thing to do as you can offset the tailstock or adjust the straight angle butt bar fairly easily. But for the CNC guys and those with interchangeable taper bars I suggest making a program or bar for the initial passes. I have tapered thousands of shafts and I can say for sure that the sooner you get the shaft to turning true in the tapering process the straighter they stay overall. In other words you will have less of the shafts warp on you and have to toss them. This can require moving your centers over if the dowel is not all that straight also. Other methods worked for me also, but I lost a greater percentage of shafts to warping with the other methods.
 
Last edited:
john coloccia said:
It does? Well, I'm glad I didn't go ahead with my plans to design and build one. Can you send me some info?
Click to expand...

The aluminum piece to make your first bar removable is $50 and additional complete two piece shaft bars are $150 each.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top