M.B. Naegle
Diamond
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2011
- Location
- Conroe, TX USA
Every now and then when reading literature for some of these old heavy iron manual lathes, I've seen sub-spindle attachments that gear down the spindle speeds. These would apparently thread onto your spindle nose and bolt onto the bed ways for alignment. This is one Hendey used to make:
I was thinking the other night, why couldn't you do the same in reverse, increasing your spindle speed? Have any lathe manufacturers ever offered such?
I can already see some issues in that for either one to be accurate, you would need some way to dial the sub-headstock casting in, or have it fitted to exactly match the height and alignment of your primary headstock. Any wear up close to your headstock would throw it off. You would also sacrifice a bit of bed room, so it might only be practical on machines with longer beds, but it would be handy to have the option of increasing your spindle range by 1:2 RPM when doing small diameter work, but still have the low n slow range for medium to big stuff.
I was thinking the other night, why couldn't you do the same in reverse, increasing your spindle speed? Have any lathe manufacturers ever offered such?
I can already see some issues in that for either one to be accurate, you would need some way to dial the sub-headstock casting in, or have it fitted to exactly match the height and alignment of your primary headstock. Any wear up close to your headstock would throw it off. You would also sacrifice a bit of bed room, so it might only be practical on machines with longer beds, but it would be handy to have the option of increasing your spindle range by 1:2 RPM when doing small diameter work, but still have the low n slow range for medium to big stuff.