Follow Rest Mod For Turning Tapers

[planeflyer21]

This is pretty slick! He makes self-adjusting contacts for the follow rest, with springs to maintain constant contact:

 

[Dorn]

I'm pretty sure that a springy follow rest isn't going to do him any good. If he sets the follower spring to exactly balance the cutting force from the tool at one diameter, it will be either too big or too small a force at other diameters. I'm not sure how I'd do the long taper he is trying. He might be able to get away with doing an inch at a time starting at the outboard end and with a fixed rest riding on the full diameter of the initial bar. The problem there, of course, would be matching up the various one inch pieces. Depending on his tolerances, some gentle filing might be enough to blend the various pieces together.

 

[Terrywerm]

I agree 100% with what Dorn had to say about it. For it to really work properly, the follower fingers need to be solid and the whole follow rest would need to move exactly the same as the cutting tool. Sadly, follow rests always bolt to the saddle and are not guided by a taper attachment in any way. The only way it would work would be to build a custom follow rest that attaches to the side of the cross slide. The compound would need to be set at zero degrees (90° to the work) and the cutting tool would be advanced by the compound screw.

 

[kingmt01]

That wouldn't work ether since the work would get bigger as you move towards the chuck. This guys might help by taking some of the harmonics out.