Tappering attachment for metal lathes. Here's a pic of one.

[Jr's Farm]

For the dust collection at the cutting source for turning on my lathe, I use a Hawaiian punch jug. I cut out access holes for the stock, router, router mount, 4" flex hose (tight compression fit with hose pushed just inside the jug) and for tightening the router collet. I admit I got lucky in that the jug is a perfect fit for the size of my router bracket. I have a different jug for butts and shafts as the size and positioning of the stock holes are different. It may sound a little goofy, but it works and works great, and is virtually free.
Kelly

This I want to see!
Right now my dust collection system is less than desirable but adequate.
I'm trying to come up with a better way but it's low on the priority list at the moment.

Frank

 

[Poulos Cues]

"...my next step is coming up with a good way to index the headstock. Anyone with pics of that on a full size metal lathe?.."

Regards,
Frank

Frank-thanks for the detailed pics!

How did you mount the small alluminum pieces to the back of the lathe? Did you screw into the groundways?

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In regards to your indexing question. (try to picture this

I have a large 13.5 x 40 Grizzly. Way back when I was able to obtain a large indexing pully much like the one from Taig Tools or Chirs Hightowers lathe. The back of my spindle has a straight od AFTER the od threaded part.

I measured several times to get the od of my spindle and had a shop bore the id of the large indexer pully.

Now, this lathe has (2) double threaded pins that hold the fiberglass pully cover on. The upper pin is double threaded (as well as the lower pin) and both pins have a hexagon body between the (2) threaded ends. I cut off the outer threaded part and drilled the flat top part of the hex to hold the rectangular "indexing pin bar" onto it. (the rectangular indexing pin bar has a threaded hole to hold the threaded "indexer pin" in place.) It overhangs into space (half on the hex pin and half into space) and lines up perfectly with the pully. LUCKY!!!! (actually, you can slide the indexer pully along the straight od of the lathe spindle.)

I put a little ice in the spindle and the indexer slid on like butter! Lined it up under the pin and locked it into place via (2) set screws threaded into the lathe spindle. Once you take the ice out, it LOCKS the indexer as well!

I might mention that it is best you use a tapered point indexer pin to hold the indexer into position when indexing. You get a much better seat into the indexer holes this way.

They only draw back is the inability to place the fiberglass lathe cover back on AND working a foot and a half away from the front of the spindle when indexing. I have yet to bore a larger odd shaped hole in the cover to slide it back on. I don't think it would be very funcional as it would have to be duct taped after put into position to cover the elongated hole.


Now comes the real problem...

Only AFTER did I decide to put on a 3-jaw chuck/adapter on this end. Had to pull everything off and back to the machine shop for an even larger id on the indexing pully.

Works great less the absence of the glass cover:wink:

No pics. I am at "my other job" right now...

 

[Jr's Farm]

Frank-thanks for the detailed pics!

How did you mount the small alluminum pieces to the back of the lathe? Did you screw into the groundways?

I made a clamp that hooks on the ways.....see pic.

I didn't screw to the ways in any way. You can remove the clamps and never know they were there. What you don't really see is the bottom part of the clamp. It's "L" shaped and clamps under the ways utilizing the allen head bolts shown. Before I got the actual unit clamped on I thought I might have to screw into the ways, but the clamps are remarkably strong and don't flex at all. The top portion of the clamp is 3/4" thick aluminum plate, the bottom "L" clamp is 1-1/4", IIRC.
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In regards to your indexing question. (try to picture this

I have a large 13.5 x 40 Grizzly. Way back when I was able to obtain the indexing pully for the large headstock bore from Taig Tools. The back of my spindle has a straight od AFTER the od threaded part.

I measured several times to get this od and had a shop bore the id of the large indexer pully.

Now, the upper double threaded pin that helps hold the Fiberglass pully cover on had to be cut. I cut off the outer threaded part and drilled the flat top to hold the rectangular bar on to it. (the rectangular bar is threaded to hold the indexer in place.) it overhangs into space and lines up perfectly with the pully. LUCKY!!!!

No pics. I am at "my other job" right now...

Sounds robust. Please post pics when your done working for the "man"

Regards,
Frank

 

[MVPCues]

This I want to see!
Right now my dust collection system is less than desirable but adequate.
I'm trying to come up with a better way but it's low on the priority list at the moment.

Frank

I posted pics at the beginning of the year, but I just looked, and the pics are no longer up. I probably removed them from the hosting site. I will try and post some again.

Kelly

 

[MVPCues]

When I drew this up I contemplated a slotted channel as opposed to the (1) sided version I came up with. While that may work for doing butts, I felt I wanted the adjustability of the (1) sided design for the shaft taper.
Trying to adjust a (2) sided slot for the compount shaft taper would be ridiculously difficult, and a CNC'd slot would leave you with only that shape.
.....
I suppose if someone had cheap access to a heavy CNC unit they could just make up a handfull of patterns and swap them out as necessary...
Regards,
Frank

Exactly. I am fortunate enough to have 5 different shaft taper bars machined out of tool steel, so for me the slotted channel works fine for shafts.

Kelly

 

[iusedtoberich]

Have you ever seen a ground linear rail? They are used in CNC applications.
They come with linear bearing block(s).

(If you look closely, you can see them in Lee's CNC machine pics.)

http://cgi.ebay.com/NBW-20TA-CNC-Li...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:0|293:1|294:50

Catch my drift?

This would typically be an expensive solution to perform the tapering application but since I have a spare 44" rail and blocks....

Instead of having a bearing pushing/ pulling against the front or back edge of the bar via a spring, (ie most of the traditional types we cuemakers use) the linear bearing block rides on the ground rail... I would put the rail at an angle of course.

I think this will work.

-Chris

Hello,

If you do this, it sounds like you will need a pivot point between the truck and the cross slide. The systems shown on the pics in this thread don't need that extra pivot because the cam/ball bearing act as the pivot. But with a linear bearing system you will need to introduce that pivot.

One other consideration for a linear bearing system is there will probably be less room for misalignment errors in the entire system. So you may have binding at different stages of your carraige travel.

And finally, it looks like the systems described here use the same cam/ball bearing attached to the cross slide in different slots or bearing surfaces on the pattern plate. When they change from a curved pattern (shaft) to a straight pattern (butt), they keep the same cross slide attachemnt, but just swap out the track that defines the pattern. With a linear bearing system, you will only be able to do the straight tapers. So you will still need to make a system for the curved shaft tapers.

 

[Poulos Cues]

Hello,

If you do this, it sounds like you will need a pivot point between the truck and the cross slide. The systems shown on the pics in this thread don't need that extra pivot because the cam/ball bearing act as the pivot. But with a linear bearing system you will need to introduce that pivot.

One other consideration for a linear bearing system is there will probably be less room for misalignment errors in the entire system. So you may have binding at different stages of your carraige travel.

And finally, it looks like the systems described here use the same cam/ball bearing attached to the cross slide in different slots or bearing surfaces on the pattern plate. When they change from a curved pattern (shaft) to a straight pattern (butt), they keep the same cross slide attachemnt, but just swap out the track that defines the pattern. With a linear bearing system, you will only be able to do the straight tapers. So you will still need to make a system for the curved shaft tapers.

Yes. Great points that have crossed my mind. I was thinking I would mount a flat plate to the top of the block, and press-fit a bearing in the arm on the slide. The arm for the straight taper would have multiple holes and be attached via a screw or ground pin of some sort that would pass thru the bearing and into a hole in the middle of the bearing top plate.

The arm would have different holes for attaching to different bars in place on the back of the lathe. When I want to switch to the shaft bar, I would take out the pin and use the farthest hole for another bearing off the end of the arm like seen here.

2 taper bars for now...one straight-but at an angle for points and straight taper, one back and inch or so for the flexible shaft bar.

Thanks again-
-Chris

 

[jsaybeswift]

taper attachment

That attachment will not work. Usually it is installed at the factory on the machine, however, it is only for about 10" on the taper. It would not work for tapering the entire length of a cue.

 

[conetip]

It all depends how often you use the taper siide versus using the normal setup.
One place I worked at, had made a second toolpost and slide mechanism specifically for using taper bars and profile turning.When profile turning off a pattern they attached a hydrualic copyattachement to the slide toopost mechanism. It was mounted onto the back of the crossslide. So the normal toolpost is not used at all or altered.
They also had a small diameter ball bearing on an arm that was spring loaded for work that did not need the hydraulic copy attachment.
All the patterns were dowled at each end and every pattern was made from a standard full length blank.
This allowed the workpiece to be mounted with a centre at one end and bearing diameters etc could but done before the workpiece was removed. The change over time was very little.
Neil

 

[JoeyInCali]

Kent has a servo cnc router now.
I don't think he has much use for a manual taperer now.