# A simple manual tracing attachment for any lathe.



## xalky

A manual tracing attachment for any lathe. I've had this on my mind ever since a local blacksmith asked me if i could make knobs for him. 

This is what it looks like all set up. You can see a handle that I just made for it in the lathe chuck. I make a pattern by tracing out the part I want to make, if i want to duplicate a part. Or i can design my own. I then cut it out onto some heavy sheet metal. I think I'm using 14 guage here. The heavier the sheet metal the better, it helps for to allow the stylus to glide a little better. I made some standoff blocks that clamp onto the back of the lathe bed. I had to make them tall enough to clear the digital readout protective cover and also to give me enough room to bolt a stylus follower mount. The stylus follower bolts onto the cross feed, where the follower rest would normally bolt up. I made the stylus out of a piece 3/8" drill rod, it's removable and it can also be rotated for better stylus orientation.

The compound is set in the same direction as the cross feed to allow for excellent part width fine tuning.





Here's a look at the standoff blocks that I made.





Here's a look at the stylus and mount.




A picture of how the compound is set so that you can adjust the diameter of the part independently from the pattern.





To use it I hog out the deepest parts of the pattern first by feeding in and running the carriage right and left. Once I'm close to the pattern I feed the cross feed into the pattern at one of the deepest points then I put some hand pressure on the cross feed wheel towards the pattern and move the carriage over till i hit the pattern. For the final pass , always working from the deepest part I move the carriage in the direction i'm working and as I'm doing that I turn back the crosfeed wheel just enough to get it to follow the pattern. Backlash actually helps a little here, because as you move the carriage right or left, if the pattern doesn't have a steep angle, the crossfeed will just follow the pattern, so long as the crossfeed handwheel is backed off to allow the crossfeed to follow the pattern freely. I got the hang of it within a few minutes.

Once its all turned down to the pattern, If you think the part should be a little smaller in diameter, just adjust your compound in. No need to move the pattern.

Then just file, sand, and polish for your final piece.

Every lathe is a little different, but the idea is there. I thought that this could also be used to turn a taper by clamping and indicating a piece of rigid straight edge to the blocks at your desired taper.

If anybody has any questions just ask away.

Marcel


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## jam

nice job please post a video


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## xalky

Don't hold your breath waiting for a video. I don't have a tripod or a decent video cam. There are no videos or even any write ups about such a thing, I know, I looked hard when I was looking for ideas. 

This design works and it's simple to use and setup. The hardest part is making a template, but thats not too hard. I used a nibbler to rough out the shape and then fine tuned it and with a file and a die grinder. Once the template is made, it can be used over and over.


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## valleyboy101

I like it.  
I made a duplicator for my wood lathe, but this is a nice idea for my metal lathe.  I like the idea of using it to turn tapers.
Thanks
Michael


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## pestilence

I've been very jealous of Keith Fenner's hydraulic semi-auto tracer, but now I don't have to be!


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## fretsman

Very nice job, there, thanks for sharing your idea )

Dave


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## Getaway

Very Nice.  You Just made my "wish list" tool making job longer. Thanks for sharing.


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## xalky

pestilence said:


> I've been very jealous of Keith Fenner's hydraulic semi-auto tracer, but now I don't have to be!


I've been keeping my eyes out for a hydraulic tracer, but most of them need lots of work because they've been laying around for years collecting dust, and they're not cheap even on craigs list. Then there's just the bulk of the whole setup...I don't have any room for that whole contraption when I'm not using it. Is this better than a hydralic tracer?.....absolutely not.  It's better than "NO" tracer.:think1:


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## righto88

That is a pretty slick set up! Very nice.


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## george wilson

xalky: What mask of lathe is that?

I used to make all of the steel spinning chucks for the PGA trophies. I did the same thing as you,except my setup was more crude. I have T slots running in the in and out direction of the cross slide. I just made a finger,hardened it,and screwed it into a T slot with a t slot nut. To hold the template,I just welded 2 arms on each end,and clamped them to the lathe bed with powerful metal clamps.

These templates were quite large,being trophy size. I'd start from the high spots and hand feed in the down hill direction. When the roughing was done,and I was down to finishing cuts,I could switch to power feeds,still holding the finger to the template with my hand on the cross feed handle.

Years ago,LeBlonde offered a simple tracing attachment that relied on a heavy weight on a cable to pull the disconnected cross slide towards the metal. Seemed very primitive,but worked. I have not found that a heavy hand or weight was necessary. I preferred to use hand pressure turning the cross feed handle in case something got over loaded. I could easily back off if that happened.

I have a mechanical Lehigh tracing attachment,but it only moves 1 1/2". Not enough for a 8" diameter trophy urn shape.


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## xalky

george wilson said:


> xalky: What mask of lathe is that?
> 
> I used to make all of the steel spinning chucks for the PGA trophies. I did the same thing as you,except my setup was more crude. I have T slots running in the in and out direction of the cross slide. I just made a finger,hardened it,and screwed it into a T slot with a t slot nut. To hold the template,I just welded 2 arms on each end,and clamped them to the lathe bed with powerful metal clamps.
> 
> These templates were quite large,being trophy size. I'd start from the high spots and hand been in the down hill direction. When the roughing was done,and I was down to finishing cuts,I could switch to power feeds,still holding the finger to the template with my hand on the cross feed handle.
> 
> Years ago,LeBlonde offered a simple tracing attachment that relied on a heavy weight ion a cable to pull the disconnected cross slide towards the metal. Seemed very primitive,but worked. I have not found that a heavy hand or weight was necessary. I preferred to use hand pressure turning the cross feed handle in case something got over loaded. I could easily back off if that happened.
> 
> I have a mechanical Lehigh tracing attachment,but it only moves 1 1/2". Not enough for a 8" diameter trophy urn shape.


 The lathe is a select 1230G. It's taiwan made. This lathe was also sold under the Dashin Prince brand name. It's from the early 90s. It's not a bad lathe. It's very similar in a lot of respects to the Grizzly 12" models. The ways casting all seem to be the same configuration on all these 12" Asian lathes evn the ones sold today.  I bought a steady rest from grizzly for one of thier 12" lathes and it bolts right up. 

I thought about having some sort of spring loaded follower for it but I wasn't sure if it would work. I could picture it in my mind going into a harmonic bounce...or worse smashing the tool into the work. The other problem with that type of setup is if the ramp angle is too steep, it'll just get hung up on the pattern. 

I did find a guy who had a Lehigh tracer online, and he showed how he used it. I was gonna try to copy that but I really didn't like that design all that much, it seemed a little flimsy from the photos.

You're right, the hand pressure seems to work the best and it's also the easiest to implement. It took me all of about 2 minutes to get the "feel" for it. I haven't tried it on steel yet but I will in the next week or so, because i need to make a handle for my giant rotary table to replace the bolt the last guy put on there.

I was gonna make a ball turner attachment, but I think this is way more versatile. I can picture myself having a whole stack of patterns on hand for different things. I can put 2 different patterns on one piece of sheet meta, on opposite sides.  Given the amount of available travel with the blocks mounted up, I can do a pattern thats almost 18" long with the tailstocK mounted. That aint bad!


Marcel


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## jam

thinking  outside the box


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## xalky

jam said:


> thinking  outside the box


 Yeah, story of my life. I don't do very well inside the box. They've been trying to mold me into what they'd like me to be my whole life and I kick back every step of the way.:shotgun:


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## george wilson

Actually,the Lehigh tracer is not flimsy at all. I have had mine for over 40 years,and it has never given me a bit of trouble,or produced a bad surface in any way. The faults with it are: 1; The aluminum parts that clamp down to the ways could be stiffer. On too steep an angle in the pattern,they can lean sideways a bit and they hold the 1/8" sheet steel,or more ideally precision ground and hardened pattern made of tool steel(I have never made a hardened pattern). and 2; The tracer traces from the INSIDE curves of a pattern,and it can give a bit of a strange interpretation of the shape you really want until you figure out how to adjust the internal curves of your pattern. Hope that makes sense. I did make the radius of the hardened steel follower finger a bit larger. It had too small a radius,and I did not want it to dig into the pattern.

But,flimsy? No more flimsy than a good Aloris tool post. It does have linear ball bearings. Everything is highly precision made and hardened tool steel. Not a bit of slack or backlash in anything. 

I am lucky to have one. They never show up for sale. I have used it to make 2 large tough as blazes Naval bronze cannon from 5" dia. round stock. I made the patterns for the breech and cascabel knob in 2 separate patterns to get the contours fully formed. Did a beautiful job requiring minimal polishing on a LARGE lathe. I made another on my 16" Grizzly lathe,and it needed more polishing work. The Grizzly just did not cut as smoothly as the 19" swing lathe I made the other one on. It was a Promaster from MSC Co.. Listed as a 17" lathe,it would actually swing 19" over the ways. That was the first lathe I ever saw UNDER rated for swing!! Usually they are a bit short of their rated swing(like 1/4").


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## savarin

Is the cross slide feed screw or compound feed screw dis-engaged for this process or is it a matter of careful dexterity in the use of lead screw handle and cross feed handles?
Thanks


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## Hawkeye

As I read it, you're using the carriage and crossfeed cranks to move the tool (with the compound as a final adjustment). The tracing template acts as a limiter to stop your movements when the stylus makes contact with it. For a given longitudinal position, the crossfeed can only move in until it hits the template.

Seems like a small CNC mill could do a good job of making templates.


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## xalky

Yes, it's entirely the operator feel on the feed handles that makes it possible. It takes a few minutes to get good at it. Very similar to using an etch-a-sketch, except that there's a stop along the pattern as you go along.


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## Shadowdog500

xalky said:


> Yes, it's entirely the operator feel on the feed handles that makes it possible. It takes a few minutes to get good at it. Very similar to using an etch-a-sketch, except that there's a stop along the pattern as you go along.



It has been a year since you posted this.  Any chance of a video now? 

You don't need a tripod.  In a couple of my videos I just leaned my iPhone against something as a makeshift tripod.  In one video for an overhead shot, I just set a new roll of paper towels on the table and set the phone on the paper towels with the camera pointed straight down.

For or this video (which was a response to a geometry question in another forum) I just set my phone on top of my computer which can be seen in the top of the shot.  http://youtu.be/_E2lPws3rqo

I propped my phone up against the side of a drawer of a rollaway toolbox for several of my videos. It makes a surprisingly good tripod.

Chris


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## xalky

No chance. I no longer have that lathe. The New lathe I have has a hydraulic tracer on it, which I've not yet put to use.


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## savarin

How dumb am I? I was thinking about this the other day and wondered if it would be possible.
I already asked that question and the answer was yes.
well it was 6 years ago so I guess for an old fart thats the norm.
I'm determined now to give it a go.


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## brino

@xalky 

Marcel, what a great idea! 
I will have to keep it in mind as a possibility when I need it.
Thanks for posting it.

@savarin 

Charles, thanks for updating this thread, somehow I had missed it all together.
If you do "give it a go" I hope you share your version too!

-brino


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## savarin

Hi Brino, I will definitely go ahead as soon as everything is in my new place.
Called 6 removalists, only two answered and came round to quote, so far only one quote back.
we hope to be fully in within 4 weeks then I can get back to my hobbies.


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## Old Mud

savarin said:


> How dumb am I? I was thinking about this the other day and wondered if it would be possible.
> I already asked that question and the answer was yes.
> well it was 6 years ago so I guess for an old fart thats the norm.
> I'm determined now to give it a go.



  How dumb are you ????   How dumb am I. I read it all the way down till i got to your post. 6 years ago UGH.   Think i'll go fix sump thing, Anything.     It is a good idea though.


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## ACHiPo

I got this beast on the lathe I purchased.  Not sure if I'll every use it, but it's pretty cool.  It is basically the same as Keith Fenner's duplicator.


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## Shotgun

Ooooh!  Put an angle on the sheet, and it's a taper attachment.


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