# A Turret For My 7x10 Mini Lathe



## Waterlooboy2hp (May 25, 2016)

Just finished this tailstock turret up, for my mini lathe.  Should work out well, for the carb parts, that I produce. It will do away with the 3 drill presses, I was using in addition to the lathe operations. ---- John


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## Andre (May 25, 2016)

That's really clever. I assume you bought the indexable turret and made the arm and stop units? 

It might be advantageous to print small plastic labels and stick them on each drill chuck and stop, so if you get mixed up you always know that the #3 turret stop matches with the tool in the #3 chuck fo instance.


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## David VanNorman (May 25, 2016)

The turret most likely weighs  as much as your mini lathe. But it looks good.


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## Waterlooboy2hp (May 25, 2016)

Andre said:


> That's really clever. I assume you bought the indexable turret and made the arm and stop units?
> 
> It might be advantageous to print small plastic labels and stick them on each drill chuck and stop, so if you get mixed up you always know that the #3 turret stop matches with the tool in the #3 chuck fo instance.



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I`ve  got that covered. There are stamped station numbers on the turret, that match the ones on the stop index.

Yes, I did buy the turret. It came with an MT2 taper, but I removed it and cut it to 1.250" long and then turned that part down to a .625" straight shank. I used 7/8" drill rod, for the ram and bored the end to .625 x 1.250 deep. The .625 straight shank was inserted with lock-tite  and a cross pin.

I bought the red castings, so I could keep my factory tailstock, as well as the SS turn buckle.

If you happen to know what the deck belt engagement lever looks like on 70s Craftsman 10/36 riding mower, then you know where my lever arm came from.

A few more photos might be in order. ----- In photo #4, you can just make out the #1 and the hash mark, on the side of the unit, where I can read it. It is between two of the chucks. The actual #1 chuck, is the one pointing at the lower  LH corner of the photo. --- In photo #3, you can see the marks for the #1 stop. ---- John

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## Waterlooboy2hp (May 25, 2016)

David VanNorman said:


> The turret most likely weighs  as much as your mini lathe. But it looks good.


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Not quite, but it does weigh 14 pounds. ---- John


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## brav65 (May 25, 2016)

Awesome job!  That looks like it would save a serious amount of time on setting up for each operation.


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## kevin.j.lovall (Jul 14, 2016)

This is awesome! I Would like to see more photos and possibly a video of it in action. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Billh50 (Jul 14, 2016)

where did you find the turret and stop ?


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## Waterlooboy2hp (Jul 14, 2016)

Billh50 said:


> where did you find the turret and stop ?



I bought the turret on E-bay. However, each of the 6 tool pockets, was not on center, with the MT2 taper. Had to put plugs in the pockets and then  turn them down and single point thread them in place.  That gave me  on center positions to mount the chucks, or any other tooling. The plugs will never be removed. Any other tooling will be made to thread on in place of a check.

The indexing stop, was made from scratch. 

I just finished 150 each of 2 different parts. One part using 5 positions and the other using 4 positions. Once I got the manual indexing routine nailed down, the jobs went very smooth.  ---- John


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