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:
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| The old way of locking the tail stock with a nut and bolt |
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| A view of the locked tail stock |
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| Starting the support bushing |
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| Drilling out the support bushing |
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| Boring the support bushing to size |
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| Another view |
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| Turning down the threaded inside bushing |
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| The two bushings |
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| The two bushings put together |
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| Using the wiggler to find the edge of the support bushing |
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| Drilling the support bushing |
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| Drilling the threaded inside bushing |
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| Tapping the threaded inside bushing |
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| Turning down the cam rod |
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| Another view |
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| Center punching (marking) the spot to drill through the tail stock |
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| The tail stock drilled |
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| The back of the drilled tail stock |
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| The snap ring on the cam |
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| Close-up of the snap ring groove |
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| Marking out the other end of the cam |
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| Another view |
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| Indicating the tapered end of the cam |
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| Leveling the cam locking lever |
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| Another view |
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| Drilling the cam |
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| Another view |
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| Turning the cam lever knob |
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| Drilling the cam lever knob |
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| Turning a radius at the end of the cam lever knob |
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| Finishing up the knob |
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| Another view |
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| Another view |
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| The finished parts |
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| The assembled parts |
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| The assembled bushings |
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| A zoomed out view of the finished tail stock quick lock |
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:
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
Hello mate great bllog
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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