Atlas lathe tailstock replacement

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

Well before the museum's acquisition of the Atlas 12 x 24 lathe, I had bought an unused lathe tailstock, thinking of modifying it for use as a rotary table tailstock. It never made the front of the queue and has sat patiently waiting for a use. The Atlas tailstock is a bit of a pain to use with only a nut securing it o the bed and the Chinese one has a lever clamping arrangement. I would guess that it was for a 10" lathe and a suitable block of steel to get it in line was also laying about. I would have preferred cast iron rather than a block of chrome moly, but beggers can't be choosers. The MT2 quill has the same travel as the Atlas one and is also self extracting, the scale is metric rather than in inches, but that never bothers me. The Atlas bed is the same as a Myford, not as good as a prismatic one, but simpler toi fit things to.

I will post some pictures as things progress

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Would it not be easier to make a new clamp nut with say six, tommy bar holes, as a means of speeding the "clamp / unclamp" operation, rather bthan having to make a riser block to get Centre height accrately?

Howard

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I had already made a special nut which, in theory, would work with a ratchet, but when the tailstock was close to the saddle, there was very limited room and all the efforts were in vain. The riser block, for a change, was exactly the right size and the stepped sides which fit in the bed gap got milled using a 50mm shell mill with APHT11 inserts, again I was lucky to find a box of Iscars which are superior to the cheap Chinese ones. I only had to square off the inside rads left by the APHT inserts. I have left about 1mm height to finalise and there is an adjustable gib copy of the Atlas one to make. Four SHCS will hold the block to the original base with just enough movement built in to get the quill dead in line with the spindle in plan view.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

Here's a photo of the tailstock sitting on the part machined block. Today, I got the exact height and did some chamfers around the block. The tailstock will fit much better that the original one, especially close to the spindle.

Edited By old mart on 09/09/2023 16:44:01

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