Are tailstock turrets any good?

[adammil1]

Often times it seems like it would be really handy to have a turret for the tailstock when making multiple parts on the manual lathe.

Before I waste my money are the morse taper turrets that they make any good or are they overall about as flimsy as they look? I would be looking at a MT3 for reference size.

 

[pan60]

i have seen them used but never used one myself.
what kind of lathe do you have?
you might be able to find a good turret tailstock. i have a couple for diferant lathes they wher not hard to find. costly but not hard to come by.

 

[Gordon Heaton]

Might work if all you need to do is drill, ream, chamfer etc. a bunch of the same parts. Otherwise to me it isn't really a practical solution to any problem.

 

[wesg]

My dad made one for a small lathe. Work of art ...

Ran a lot of production parts using it. Drawback vs a real turret lathe is remembering the depths for each tool, or having to set them all so 'zero' is the finished depth.

Trouble with most lathes is the tailstock isn't on center with the spindle, so it's best to bore the sockets in place if you're using small tools. Dedicated 'screw machine' holders have adjustments to make up for that.

 

[M.B. Naegle]

They can speed up jobs when you have a bunch of relatively simple parts to make, but they take more time and thought to set up so the length of the tools all work without moving the tailstock around (ideally), while at the same time not having the tools hit the cross-slide. Most use straight shank sockets, while most tool-room lathe tools are tapered shank, so you have to account for adapters too.

 

[MrWhoopee]

I have a couple of them, MT2. I can see them being useful for drill, c'sink and tap or similar ops where you don't need to control depth closely. I did set one up but never used it. I don't do repetitive work so have no need.

 

[tailstock4]

Often times it seems like it would be really handy to have a turret for the tailstock when making multiple parts on the manual lathe.

Before I waste my money are the morse taper turrets that they make any good or are they overall about as flimsy as they look? I would be looking at a MT3 for reference size.

I thought I’d post some pictures of a turret I have on a Rivett 1020S. I know it is not a tailstock turret, but it is an option that works better than I originally would have expected.

I don’t really use the machine to have multiple tooling setups for a particular part that much. Rather I use it more like a tailstock. I have one socket that was bored and dedicated to a revolving center, and it is adjustable. I keep open the indexing socket next to it which allows me to have greater room when turning between centers – something it does surprisingly well.

The turret is fully scraped to the bed. I usually only tighten 1 or 2 hold down bolts. This allows me to move it much like a tailstock. And when I clamp it, I use a T-handled ball screw. This allows me to move the whole thing quickly up and down the bed.

The other big advantage of this style of turret is its 7 3/8” stroke maximum which is about twice what the normal tailstock length would be on this machine. Drilling and reaming are much quicker.

I also adapted a pointer and scale with a lock to hold the ram when turning between centers.

I don’t know how well this works on all machines. I think the 13” wide bed of the Rivett helps a little in terms of clearance and tooling when indexing. I almost passed on this machine, but at the price I got it for, it ended up being a useful surprise. It doesn’t fully replace a tailstock, but it has its advantages.

 

[john.k]

The bed mount ones like Enco are far better .....often see them on ebayUS .....generally the seller doesnt know what they are off ,so prices are low.

 

[L Vanice]

KDK made a turret with 5/8" holes to fit their tool posts. It was a work of art. I never used mine and sold it. With a DRO, I think this tool post turret would be easier to use than one in the standard tailstock. Still nowhere as good as a real bed turret for making lots of parts, of course.

My Clausing 5900 lathe came with the optional Enco bed turret and lever cross slide. I did use it for a few hundred parts in the 1980's. I leave the standard tailstock on the lathe and never used a 3MT turret in it.

My Hardinge ESM59 came with a turret and lever cross slide in addition to the slide rest and standard tailstock. I made thousands of parts with the turret back in the 1980's.

Larry

 

[pan60]

here is what i set up many years ago on a old sould bend. found this pic on my computer.

 

[tailstock4]

KDK made a turret with 5/8" holes to fit their tool posts. It was a work of art. I never used mine and sold it.

Larry

View attachment 380772

I’ve never seen one like that. I assume the red knob indexes it. Was the purpose to try to save on the need for additional tool holders? Was there any other reason? Speed indexing, I suppose?

 

[fciron]

I’ve got one of the Enco tail stock MT mounted turrets and it’s pretty flimsy.

It works well for drilling and countersinking holes, which serves my purposes.

I don’t think I’d try to run a box tool or other real turret lathe tooling in it.

 

[eKretz]

I've got an Enco MT3 turret also. I wouldn't call it flimsy as far as drilling goes, but it's still just MT3. Not likely you're going to be able to do any turning or boring with one. Just not stiff enough with a little MT3 shank. Plenty good for drilling, countersinking, counterboring, reaming, tapping, etc.

 

[David_M]

That Rivett 1020S owned by tailstock4 is amazing!

 

[jim rozen]

I've got an enco MT2 unit. I think the only difference between the MT2 and the MT3 is the stub arbor mounted in the backside. I've used it on a number of occasions, with small taps, drills, and countersinks. Lightweight but pretty good considering the overall small size.

 

[boslab]

I had a little myford ml7 lathe once ( stolen I’m afraid) it had a 6 pos ( hex) turret, it was actually good but only for limited jobs, if I had a tapped hole with die head thread outside or some such great for 20 off, otherwise it was a pain in the arse, the number of times I cut myself banging into a drill or centre drill was silly, and I’d Chuck and centre turning the thing would deflect, bad.
For one off work, plain centre was great.
Mark

 

[adammil1]

The bed mount ones like Enco are far better .....often see them on ebayUS .....generally the seller doesnt know what they are off ,so prices are low.

Years ago I picked up a bed mount turret with the idea of modifying it but the time I got the center height all set up to the spindle it would crash into the cross slide effectively killing that idea. Now I am just thinking the Enco style MT3 could be handy for $100 when it comes to simple parts where I want to center drill, drill ,tap etc... Seems like feedback here is it may be worth it?

 

[fciron]

Years ago I picked up a bed mount turret with the idea of modifying it but the time I got the center height all set up to the spindle it would crash into the cross slide effectively killing that idea. Now I am just thinking the Enco style MT3 could be handy for $100 when it comes to simple parts where I want to center drill, drill ,tap etc... Seems like feedback here is it may be worth it?

That’s how I use mine. Haven’t found a good tapping solution. I usually use my cordless drill and spiral point taps.

 

[Laverda]

I thought I’d post some pictures of a turret I have on a Rivett 1020S. I know it is not a tailstock turret, but it is an option that works better than I originally would have expected.

I don’t really use the machine to have multiple tooling setups for a particular part that much. Rather I use it more like a tailstock. I have one socket that was bored and dedicated to a revolving center, and it is adjustable. I keep open the indexing socket next to it which allows me to have greater room when turning between centers – something it does surprisingly well.

The turret is fully scraped to the bed. I usually only tighten 1 or 2 hold down bolts. This allows me to move it much like a tailstock. And when I clamp it, I use a T-handled ball screw. This allows me to move the whole thing quickly up and down the bed.

The other big advantage of this style of turret is its 7 3/8” stroke maximum which is about twice what the normal tailstock length would be on this machine. Drilling and reaming are much quicker.

I also adapted a pointer and scale with a lock to hold the ram when turning between centers.

I don’t know how well this works on all machines. I think the 13” wide bed of the Rivett helps a little in terms of clearance and tooling when indexing. I almost passed on this machine, but at the price I got it for, it ended up being a useful surprise. It doesn’t fully replace a tailstock, but it has its advantages.

View attachment 380767 View attachment 380768 View attachment 380769 View attachment 380770 View attachment 380771

How in the hell is your Rivett lathe so clean? Last time mine looked like that was the day I bought it.

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

Years ago I picked up a bed mount turret with the idea of modifying it but the time I got the center height all set up to the spindle it would crash into the cross slide effectively killing that idea. Now I am just thinking the Enco style MT3 could be handy for $100 when it comes to simple parts where I want to center drill, drill ,tap etc... Seems like feedback here is it may be worth it?

I picked one up last month, only used it once so far, it took a few minutes to setup, but it was more convenient than swapping out 4 tools to make a part, times 10 parts. The Yam lathe came with a bed mount turret (plus a standard tail stock), the bed turret is still in the to-do pile.