Taper tool for lathe from boring head

[GaryK]

Turning tapers can be a pain without a taper attachment. Moving the tailstock means that you have to put it back.

Using a boring head from the mill is another simple way of doing it. I will show that in detail later.
You do need a couple of special things.

1. A Morse Taper shaft for your boring head to fit you tail stock.
2. A live center without a Morse Taper but a shaft diameter to fit your boring head.

I will come back to number 2 later in this post.

Number 1 is easier, but a little pricey. For example my boring head is small with a thread of 7/8-20 and enco has them for $30.
But on ebay I found one for $10 with shipping, but it has 1/2-20 threads. Being cheap like I am I decided to adapter it.

These are the steps I took.

I started with this:


I cut the tang off of it (not necessary) and Turned, Tapped and Faced off the correct size of material


The I mount it in the headstock using the morse taper itself so I know it will be nice and true.
To make sure it doesn't un-thread I drilled a hole from the end in half of each part and drove in a roll pin.
Here I'm cutting the roll pin flush.


Then I form a blank for the threads.


Then thread it.


And it fits!


Here is is completed



And installed


As soon as I get the live center I ordered I'll show what I do to that.

Gary

View attachment 97954

 

[Randy_m]

Great idea, puttin that one on the to do list.

 

[darkzero]

Great thread gary, I'll definitely be following this one.

I've been planning to buy two boring heads, one to make one of these & the other to make another radius turning tool that attaches to my QCTP instead of directly to my cross slide like the one I currently have.

Interested in how to make the live center part. I was thinking to modify a MT1 live center but wasn't sure if it would be too big.

Looks like a 2" head or are you using a 3"?

 

[GK1918]

Great Gary, I guess Im lucky, I already have or came with my Criterion with a MT2 & MT3 and a R8
adaptor. Also there is nothing wrong with a plain ole dead center or a ball bearing works well.
Excellent idea, tailstock alignment is dreadfull chore. With this I can already see raking a taper with
dial ind. and tweeking the boring head until it -0s- out.

 

[GaryK]

Great thread gary, I'll definitely be following this one.

I've been planning to buy two boring heads, one to make one of these & the other to make another radius turning tool that attaches to my QCTP instead of directly to my cross slide like the one I currently have.

Interested in how to make the live center part. I was thinking to modify a MT1 live center but wasn't sure if it would be too big.

Looks like a 2" head or are you using a 3"?

It a 2" Head with 1/2" holes. I ordered an MT2 live center since a MT1 is smaller than 1/2". I should be getting it soon.

 

[RandyM]

Shear Genius Gary! Brilliant, just brilliant. Thanks for the post.

 

[GaryK]

Shear Genius Gary! Brilliant, just brilliant. Thanks for the post.

I can't take credit for this tapering setup. It's not my idea.

Gary

 

[GaryK]

Got my new live center today so I wasted no time in turning it down to fit my boring head.

This is it out of the package.



Chucked up with one pass taken.



The finished product.



Mounted in boring head



and installed ready to start turning tapers.



Next time I'll turn a MT2 for my rotary table adapted to center up a 4J chuck.

Gary

 

[darkzero]

Nice, now to wait & hear how good it works. ) Good to see your new 6-jaw in action. I did not realize the MT1 was smaller than 1/2", I never had any MT1 tooling, & I never bothered to check. Good thing you mentioned it.

BTW, I see they generously used that same white grease on your chuck that came on my Fuerda. There was so much excess of that white grease on my 4-jaw that I think I could have filled up a small container to use for later & last me a while. What a mess cleaning all that stuff off but in my case the jaws were so much smoother after I took most of it out.

Some people swear by grease & some people say just oil. The grease Bison uses/sells is expensive (Fuchs Lubritech Gleitmo 805)! I took the advice of others & use oil. Even though you got a lot of initial fling but I don't like how chips get stuck in the grease so easy, the thought of all that in the scroll doesn't seem too good. What I don't understand is that my 6-jaw has a small zerk fitting on the face & Bison uses grease. Naturally I would think to use oil there but I suppose you could shoot grease through there too. I never use that zerk fitting to lube though.

 

[GaryK]

BTW, I see they generously used that same white grease on your chuck that came on my Fuerda. There was so much excess of that white grease on my 4-jaw that I think I could have filled up a small container to use for later & last me a while. What a mess cleaning all that stuff off but in my case the jaws were so much smoother after I took most of it out.

Some people swear by grease & some people say just oil. The grease Bison uses/sells is expensive (Fuchs Lubritech Gleitmo 805)! I took the advice of others & use oil. Even though you got a lot of initial fling but I don't like how chips get stuck in the grease so easy, the thought of all that in the scroll doesn't seem too good. What I don't understand is that my 6-jaw has a small zerk fitting on the face & Bison uses grease. Naturally I would think to use oil there but I suppose you could shoot grease through there too. I never use that zerk fitting to lube though.

Yup, I have to clean out the grease. I was too anxious to get something done to actually do it. No hurry though, so I'll wait until my next cleanup phase. Oil is what I've always used.

Gary