Taper Attachment for a Turn-Pro Lathe?
#1
I am thinking of building a taper attachment for my 13" Enco Turn-Pro lathe. Enco sells them installed on new lathes but not for aftermarket. I am wondering what they look like and how the cross slide is freed from its screw. Does anyone have pictures of this set up or know how it can be accomplished?
TIA
Randy
randyjaco, proud to be a member of MetalworkingFun since Jul 2012.
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#2
Many of the parts for a taper attachment are easy to make, including the clamp that grips the ways, the slide, follower and rod. The hard part is the alterations you would have to make to the cross slide. On some machines the thread and nut that are normally used for in & out need to be able to "disconnect" in a way to allow the cross slide to follow the angle-set slide. Other machines, such as my 1970's era Victor (Tai-Chung) lathe uses the normal cross slide though adds a mechanism to pull or push the inboard end of the cross slide.

Perhaps you can look around the internet for various mechanisms that lathes have used for this. I wish I had time to help, because at aome point I'd like to make one for my own lathe and the parts list doesn't have good scaleable illustrations of the parts.

Best of luck!
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#3
Thanks Pixman,
At this point I am in research mode. The biggest problem, as you said, is figuring out how to best handle the cross slide screw. I need to figure out something so I have a quick and easy set up and take down. I have gotten along without a TA for @10 years now, so I am in no screaming hurry. But it would be nice to have a TA for the 1-3 times a year I would use it Big Grin
I would also like to tackle the challenge of building one.

Randy

(01-15-2013, 10:55 AM)PixMan Wrote: Many of the parts for a taper attachment are easy to make, including the clamp that grips the ways, the slide, follower and rod. The hard part is the alterations you would have to make to the cross slide. On some machines the thread and nut that are normally used for in & out need to be able to "disconnect" in a way to allow the cross slide to follow the angle-set slide. Other machines, such as my 1970's era Victor (Tai-Chung) lathe uses the normal cross slide though adds a mechanism to pull or push the inboard end of the cross slide.

Perhaps you can look around the internet for various mechanisms that lathes have used for this. I wish I had time to help, because at aome point I'd like to make one for my own lathe and the parts list doesn't have good scaleable illustrations of the parts.

Best of luck!
randyjaco, proud to be a member of MetalworkingFun since Jul 2012.
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#4
I'm not familiar with your lathe, but most imports that came with taper attachments used a 'telescopic leadscrew' on the cross-slide. Lookin at the parts list (and assuming it's the same machine), they don't show it...

A possibility: a sturdy tube surrounding the screw with a cutout for the leadscrew nut, one end with a flange to mount the handwheel thrust bearings and block, the other extended out the back of the cross-slide for the taper adaptor to move the screw in and out (maybe with needle rollers to support the back end of the screw) - that would also allow adjusting the depth of cut as normal using the cross-slide handwheel when cutting tapers...

It would probably mean milling the cross-slide for clearance around the tube, and you'd need a way to secure the tube for normal straight turning, but might just work? You'd have to allow for the handwheel and block moving in and out, somehow, and some way to stop the tube rotating would be essential - perhaps long dowel pins in the cross-slide base (saddle), the tube's flange and bearing block riding on 'em?

If that sounds feasible I could get some CAD practice and draw up a not-to-scale sketch to clarify...


Just my ha'pennorth,
Dave H. (the other one)
Rules are for the obedience of fools, and the guidance of wise men...
(Douglas Bader)
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