Monday, April 18, 2016

Cam Lock For My Emco Maximat V10 Metal Lathe Tail Stock

Update:
In the meantime I made another one of these for a gentleman in town who saw mine and asked me to do one for his lathe as well. Here's the link: How to Make a DIY Cam Lock for a Lathe Tail Stock

Project:
Replacing the regular nut and bolt tail stock locking mechanism with a quick-lock cam lock

Difficulty Level (Easy, Medium, Hard, Insane):
Easy

Process:
One of the projects that I've had towards the top of my "to-do" list was a quick-lock tail stock cam lock mechanism because 1/3rd of a turn of the wrench was usually not enough to lock/unlock the tail stock so I'd have to fiddle with the wrench and do two (sometimes even 3) 1/3rd turns to lock the tail stock.

I've done some research and found a bunch of different ways to do a quick-lock, but decided to just start it and adapt it along the way. I did have to make a few small adjustments and the only thing I do NOT like about it is that I wasn't paying attention when drilling the hole for the lever so instead of locking it from about 2 o'clock to 11 o'clock it is now more like 4 o'clock to 1 o'clock. Its probably a minor issue but if it turns out to be a pain in the butt I'll have to re-do the cam portion of the locking mechanism.

The other challenge was that this is the first time I've worked with stainless steel and boy is that stuff hard. Turning, milling and drilling wasn't a problem but threading it turned out to be quite tough. I had to go slow and steady and after some coaxing I did get it done.

Videos:



Pictures:
The old way of locking the tail stock with a nut and bolt
A view of the locked tail stock
Starting the support bushing
Drilling out the support bushing
Boring the support bushing to size
Another view
Turning down the threaded inside bushing
The two bushings
The two bushings put together
Using the wiggler to find the edge of the support bushing
Drilling the support bushing
Drilling the threaded inside bushing
Tapping the threaded inside bushing
Turning down the cam rod
Another view
Center punching (marking) the spot to drill through the tail stock
The tail stock drilled
The back of the drilled tail stock
The snap ring on the cam
Close-up of the snap ring groove
Marking out the other end of the cam
Another view
Indicating the tapered end of the cam
Leveling the cam locking lever
Another view
Drilling the cam
Another view
Turning the cam lever knob
Drilling the cam lever knob
Turning a radius at the end of the cam lever knob
Finishing up the knob
Another view
Another view
The finished parts
The assembled parts
The assembled bushings
A zoomed out view of the finished tail stock quick lock
Tools:
Metal lathe and accessories
Tap & Die set
Drill press
Vise
Cordless drill
Table saw
Angle grinder
Bench top grinder
Snap ring pliers
Metal scribe
Pliers

Materials:
2" of 1-1/4" mild steel
2" of 7/8" steel (4140)
4" of 3/4" stainless steel
4" of 1/2" stainless steel
2" of 1" teflon
Blue Dykem layout fluid
One 1/2" snap ring
One 3/8" snap ring

Cost:
$0.00

Time:
3 hrs

Savings:
N/A

Conclusion:
It works great.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

hello,
I am trying to understand which is your metal lathe and if it is same as mine. I thought you had an EMCO Maximat Compact MQ-3100, then I see references to a EMCO Maximat V10.
I own a Maximat Compact M3100 (same as the MQ, but without the gearbox to cut threads), and looking for the specs to build or buy a quadrant setto hold the gears changing speed of the screwcutter shaft.
That part used ot be sold by EMCO as MQ-3120, but the only instance I found of it is from lathes.co.uk, and not as a part for sale, more as a museum illustration (*sigh*).
Could you help?
Thanks
Laurent
pierrard-at-yahoo-dot-com

Damien Daniels said...

Hello mate great bllog

Anonymous said...

I feel like I'm missing something here. You have no pictures of turning the cam in a 4 jaw chuck. You did offset the cam shaft in order to cut the cam, correct?

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