Dental lathe question - whjat is shaft 'rod'

Well, in keeping with the good advice on this board, I bought a dental lathe on Ebay which is on its way to me. I bought a RedWing over Baldor as they looked a little better built (?)

Kinda funny they call these things lathes....

Anyway, I've never had one before, but in looking at photos they all have this rod sticking out from the shaft. What is it for? Does it spin or stay stationary?

Is it removable? Maybe to keep the shaft from spinning when you tighten the buff on the arbor?

If it's not removable, I have no idea. Looks like a knuckle-buster.

You know, I've got that issue around here with keyed chucks, too. I don't know whether the key is supposed to be removed or left in. They kept flying out, so I taped the god darn things in.

Thats a strange lathe? The whole lot looks for polishing that thing sticking up.Who knows,Logically a key to tighten the mops onto arbor?

The little rod is turned like a screw with the fingers. It does not spin. . It pushes the buffing wheel arbor off of the tapered shaft without a lot of fuss. There is a larger diameter screw thread concentric with the motor's tapered shaft inside it, which enables the device to gracefully push against the buffing arbors without hurting anything.

Lathe is the proper name for the machine.It is a polishing lathe.

gwilson nailed it.http://handlermfg.com/instructions/26a_Manual.pdf

It does not spin. It rotates and pushes the wheel off the taper when you want to remove one. It is a very fast thread and 1/2 turn or so moves it out far enough to pop off the wheel. The shafts are tapered similar to a Morse taper angle.
Bill D.

Dental laboratory and jewelry polishing lathes go way back to foot powered versions. I once had an electric polishing lathe with exposed terminals for connecting the 110V power cord that probably dated around 1910-20. It had the same tapered shafts and chuck ejectors as my much newer Baldor lathes. When I bought my first Baldor lathe new around 1970, I also bought an assortment of the tooling with tapered bores, called chucks by the dental people. There are many types of chucks and wheel holders available. The tapered screw chucks come in left and right hand and are what you use with wooden center wire wheels, lead center grinding wheels and leather reinforced hole cloth buffs. If you have the right wheels, the tapered screw chucks make changing wheels much faster than if you are using wheels held with 1/2" threaded arbors and nuts. Of course, you can also use chucks with solidly attached wheels and have a chuck for each wheel. The tapered shafts on the lathe make it easy to change the chucks. The tapered shafts are made to some old US standard, so any brand tooling will fit.

I have found Lion's Dental Supply to be a good source for this sort of stuff, but I don't see dental chucks on their website. Dental Laboratory Lathes

The Handler website shows a good variety of dental chucks so you can see what is available. Chucks & Spindles : Dental Lab Solutions by HandlerMFG, Dental Lab Equipment and Lab Benches

No surprise that Amazon has this stuff. Amazon.com: dental lathe chuck

Jewelry supply companies like Rio Grande have lathes and tapered shaft tooling. Baldor 3/8 Tapered-Shaft Polishing Motor, 1/2hp

Larry

Thanks guys.

I guess it can be called a lathe....but then so should a bench grinder cuz they are both just electric motors with a shaft hanging out each end. No gearboxes, pulleys, ways, feeds, etc.

I just got an old BUFFDENTCO dental lathe that has a three position toggle switch. The left position is slower than the right.
I read that with newer lathes the slow position should always be turned on first Is that also the case with older machines? Thanks in advance for your help. Fred