Question about Hardinge Cataract lathes

Did Hardinge ever make a 7" tailstock for the Cataract lathes that would accept a 3c collet? Thanks.

Can't see any here Cataract Lathe Accessories …...PMer Larry Valence is probably the man to ask.

No. The Chicago Cataract tailstocks all had a proprietary "Cataract" taper, somewhat different from Morse no. 1. Some were later reamed out to 1 MT. I suppose you could use two 3C headstocks and slide the one down the bed. The Cataracts made in Elmira from 1935 on had 1 MT tailstocks and some of the 1940 and later Hardinge lathes had 2 MT. The quick change swing models may have had Morse tapers, but I don't know.

Tailstocks that held the same 8 mm or 10 mm collets as the headstock were first made either by American Watch Tool or F. W. Derbyshire and later copied by Clement, Levin, G. Boley and Leinen. But even the Derbyshire and Levin lathes with 3C headstocks still were sold with 10 mm collet tailstocks.

The only large collet-holding tailstocks I have seen are for Schaublin 102 lathes, either W20 or W25 collets. I have a W25 with rack and pinion feed and it is a thing of beauty. I have abandoned my plan to adapt it to a 9" Hardinge lathe. But I have not seen everything, so there may be other ones out there.

Hardinge did make a "Quill Rest" that I have only seen in the catalogs. It was a sort of auxiliary headstock that sat on the bed to the right of the regular headstock and was driven from a special collet in the headstock. The quill was a sleeve with a 3C spindle in it and was clamped to the base that fit the bed and lined up with the headstock. The idea was that the quill and work could be taken off the base and put on a mill for operations that would be perfectly concentric with the turned portion of the work. These had no axial spindle travel.

Larry

Just to confirm the Hardinge Quick change lathes had a 2MT taper in the tailstock as mentioned in the 1919 catalogue

Harold

Thanks all for your responses. I'll quit looking for the thing. On to other stuff.

Luddite

Luddite said:

Thanks all for your responses. I'll quit looking for the thing. On to other stuff.

Luddite

Click to expand...

Cheap and cheerful is an ER, (less-cheap, a TG, or SK) spanner-actuated collet system on a tail that fits your present TS taper - torque-rod up to you, but they are worth it to protect the taper.

An ER 32, 20, 16, or even smaller will cost you around one-third the daylight of a Jacobs chuck and even less what a keyless Albrecht needs, can grip and hold center better than "any of the above". Ortlieb also have some rubberflex types for taps and drills.

Bottom line is that 3C wouldn't gain you much but minimum "daylight" loss even if you did find such.