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True Trace attachment on No. 60 lathe first try

Ed Call

Aluminum
Joined
Apr 1, 2007
Location
omaha nebraska
I acquired a true trace hydraulic tracing attachment and put it on my No.60 monarch. I thought I would post a few pictures I took of it installed on the lathe and a lifting bracket to put unit back on resivour for storage. the unit works great and I am making sheet metal templet and just getting the hang of using it. I put two short videos on you tube. one is called TRUE TRACE PART 2IMG_1595.jpgIMG_1594.jpgIMG_1596.jpgIMG_1598.jpg
 
I read your post with interest because I too, have a Tru-Trace attachment mounted on my 16" South Bend lathe. The attached pictures are of a set-up where I machined over 300 stairway spindles and newell posts out of red oak. My cutting tool was a angle grinder with a carbide insert cutter with a insert radius of .125. I bought this Tru-Trace attachment off a widow whose husband purchased it new and didn't get to use it before he died. I paid $900 for it. I have all the rails to mount templates. The only trouble that I had with it is that the hydraulic hoses started leaking due to age. Another use that I am contemplating is to make a 90 degree template so that I can thread right up to a shoulder, and have the tool withdraw without touching the shoulder.

Notice the shroud connected to my dust collector to carry away the chips and deposit them in a 50 gallon container. If I didn't have a industrial dust collector, the mess would be intolerable. Each spindle was finished with 3 cuts.


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thanks for the photo's, did you connect the template holder to the bottom of the bed of the lathe? , would you have a better picture of this ? thanks ed
 
Here is how it is attached. It is attached to the top of the front V way. The various parts of the template bracket allowed me to position it low to allow the proper position of the stylus. It also allows for clearance for the longitudinal handwheel. It is possible that some of these parts have been lost before you acquired it.


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I was told long ago that Monarch made one of the best tracer units on the market. In fact they were one of the first Lathe makers to offer a tracing lathe starting in 1930. Their tracing automatic lathes like the Monomatic would run circles around early CNC lathes. Though Monarch built one of the first NC lathes, they were slow to capitalize on this as the tracers were faster and less expensive to purchase.
 








 
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