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Taper turning attachments

Kenre

Cast Iron
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Location
Melbourne Australia
Due to the exorborent prices i have seen these things sell for, And that i enjoy making things myself, Ive decided to build a taper turning unit for my lathe. (not going to mention brand) hehe.


Does anyone have, or know where i can find plans for these? Ive never had a close look at one to nut it out myself.
Also be great to hear of mods and experiences etc.
 
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Unless you just like making machine parts, find a hydraulic tracer attachment instead. Many times the usefulness, and portable from lathe to lathe.
 
Forgot to add, most hoe grown TAs will be of the non-telescopic type. This requires removal of the cross feed lead screw to allow the TA to draw the slide. DOC is then controlled with the compound. Atlas TA is of this type.
 
Most of the home-built taper attachments are non-telescoping. Meaning, like Mike says, that you have to disconnect the crossfeed leadscrew to turn a taper. This is a lot easier to do on some lathes...

A telescoping taper attachment is a much bigger project...

You might consider just finding a taper attachment from a lathe of similar size, and re-fit it to your lathe.

Funny thing about taper attachments: they seem like status symbols. You rarely use one, but everyone wants one on their lathe :)
 
How often do you need to turn a taper that you couldn't make by just turning the compound to the correct angle?

Maybe I'm spoiled with 6.25" of compound travel.
 
Turning a taper

You might want to search for the tool I made to cut tapers . The one I made only has a
stroke of about 6 inches but one of these days when it warms up I'll make one with a longer stroke. I think it works great. If you want i'll send you a print.
search for jims homemade taper slide tool.
 
You can make a simple adjustable set over center for the tailpiece. Brownell's used to sell one. I made one by attaching a Derbyshire jeweler's lathe cross slide,a larger than usual cross slide of its type-about 4" long,to a tapered center to fit into the tailstock. Attached a hardened steel 60 deg. center to the side of the slide that faces the headstock. You do have to turn between centers to make tapers with it. Otherwise,I set the compound to turn tapers. A real taper attachment would be the best if you take the time to make it. WHAT SIZE AND TYPE LATHE? I have a few old ones laying around. One is for about a 14-16" swing Southbend lathe. It is old,brown,and dirty,but I know it was never actually used. Make an offer. Yikes,I just noticed you are in Australia. Shipping would be expensive.
 
As long as you are going to go to all the trouble, why not just jump to the "speed of light" and design it to accept a template which can be a "form" of your choosing?

Then you could turn shapes as well.

Spring load the slide to follow the shape on the back side of the attachment and if you run off of it, the tool would just move away from the work.


Just a thought.

Regards,

Stan-
 
I have a little Lehigh manual tracing attachment. I can cut tapered threads with it to make things like buffer spindle ends. Trouble is,these little manual,non hydraulic taper attachments are pretty rare. Template follower mentioned above is something I've been planning to make for years. My tracer only does abt. 1 1/2" stroke. then,I have to piece it to get more.
 
tailstock offset for taper

Gwilson
I made a tool to offset the tail stock for cutting tapers. I am going to pull
the center out and replace with a hemispherical ball point on the end.
Mine locates on the outside barrel of the tail stock. Indicate top true then adjust offset.
jims

IMG_0002-1-2.jpg
 
Holes for different tapers.

Marty
I am sure the holes are like the ones I made for my taper slide. Each hole pinned returns you to preset taper? Right? I used roll pins but would have used tapered pins if I had them.
Hole one equals mt#1 ect.
jims
 
Those holes are only accurate for a given length of stock though. Change the distance between centers and your indication is hosed.
 
Are ball centers and lathe dogs used often in tailstock taper turning?

For turning tapers with a tailstock set-over, sometimes it's more convenient to use an attachment like GWilson's first post or Marty Feldman's.

But in either case (either moving the tailstock, or using the tailstock taper device), when you set over the workpiece, it tends to bind if you use a conventional 60° center. So you can either make a ball-tipped center, or use a Bell Center drill to cut a concave countersink, which rides nicely on a 60° center, even when set over.
 
Big disadvantage of the off set tailstock (and you can just make a center for your boring head and do the exact same thing) is that you still can't use the chuck for holding the headstock end. Offset taper turning requires the use of centers and dogs.
 
True, but you can not single point tapered threads that way. To single point tapered threads on a manual lathe, you need a taper attachment.

What's the difference if the carriage is being "pulled" by the feed or the thread drive?
The cross slide will still follow the profile. No?

I just need further explaination.

Regards,

Stan-
 








 
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