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Live center with straight shank - Is there such a thing ?

Milacron

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Dec 15, 2000
Location
SC, USA
Schaublin lathe with rack and pinion type tailstock takes Schaublin collets rather than MT tooling. So a live center with about 20mm straight shank would be ideal.

Could put a MT2 shank inside straight adapter of course, but would be preferable to have the center with straight shank from the get go.
 
I've been wondering the same thing.

I've got a bed turret for my lathe that takes 1" tooling, but haven't seen a live center that will fit. I also thought about the MT2->1" adapter, but not too crazy about that either... If it were not for the live center issue, I would probably just use my turret full time and remove the tailstock. Sure would be nice to have longer throw with direct feed on drills and reamers, plus more than one mounted at a time...

It also crossed my mind to plug one of the 1" holes, redrill it, and rebore with my MT3 reamer. One MT3 hole for regular tailstock tooling, uses common adapters, and lets me share tooling wtih my MT3 drill press. 6 others for normal turret stuff.
 
I have one for my little turret lathe. It came with the lathe along with a tapping head, tailstock toolholder, and some stamping heads amongst other weirdness. I have no idea where it was bought from, the lathe is a French S2S one.
Ive been meaning to make a MT adaptor for it for ages...
 
So, what's wrong with using a #2MT to 1" holder? It's done a lot to hold drills, why not a live center?
It would probably be ok, but I had some notion of error accumulation issues. A normal tailstock quill contains the center directly via it's MT interior.

It seems bad enough to be going from collet to live center, but collet to adapater to live center introduces two more chances for slight misalignment. Drills don't need to be all that accurate, centers often do....esp on a Schaublin lathe.

Having said that, if one drilled their center hole with the same adapter that would help, but I tend to do repair type work where the center hole is already in the stock.
 
D- Schaublin makes a collet body to MT adapter. W-20 or W-25 whichever you need. Accurate as can be. I'd go that route, then you can use proper Swiss Gepy centers!
 
Why am I thinking that drilling the center hole with the same adapter would not matter one bit ??

The center is going to come out on the lathe spindle centerline ?? if the adapter is off center when you drill the center you will just not get a true form ?

If the center is off centerline of the spindle you will get a taper to your turned part ??

another option is to use a morse taper ID straight OD floating holder ?? the ones where you loosen the screws to get it on center perfectly then tighten them back down, you could probably BORE a center with the compound rest then use it to align the floating holder/live center assembly...then double check it by using an indicator in the chuck and indicating the live center ?

Bill
 
Quote:

"Why am I thinking that drilling the center hole with the same adapter would not matter one bit ??"

That was exactly my reaction...

Definitely one of those situations where two wrongs do not a right make...
 
No biggie. The shanks are usually machinable. Pick one with enough bark on it, chuck it up, and turn it straight. If you want to get fancy send it out to be ground to a nice neat diameter.
 
I use the MT3 to 1 1/2 inch adaptor on my big J&L lathe turrett for a live center all the time. It stays mounted in position 8 (I think that is it, I am at home). I also have a really neat die head in the position before that.

I bought the adaptor new, cleaned out the hole quite well and put in good live center. Figured I may as well just do it once.
 
Milacron. A new center usually has a good concentric diameter on the OD of the bearing housing where you'd gently chuck it. OTH you could mount the center between a tailstock center and a centerhole in a piece of scrap in the four jaw. Drive it with a dog. Even if you're off a bit turn it to your advantage. Mark the high point and rotate the center is use the error instead of offsetting the tailstock to remove taper.

Alternatively supply a tapered socket to straight OD sleeve that fits your lathe.

Story: When I worked briefly at an old boatyard shop I found a bent live center I could use on the junky old lathe they had me run. This lathe was the one they used for polishing shafting. The ways were a sandy desert of abrasive. The tailstock was rockered so bad it seldom snugged up on a vertical plane intersecting the spindle axis. I was there to make a dozen or so small winch shafts. Making untapered diameters was a real battle. I used the bent center to correct the taper by rotating it to make the offset. One piece of junk compentated for another.

The place was a seething pit of insinuation and backbiteing, a product of a vicious manipulative management. My ability to get straight work out of the junky lathe was the subject of denial, denouncement, and covert scrutiny. I never told a soul there my secret. Some shops deserve to die because of the culture they foster among their employees.
 








 
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