Hi

Attached are some photos of a factory made taper turning attachment in use to turn a Morse Taper No.3. The only other place I have seen a genuine Denford taper turning attachment is in old brochures. A least this one exists.

Also included but not shown are two centres that fit in the place of the straight edge. A turned profile can be mounted between centres and copied. I am sure I will find a use for it one day.

The dial gauge is attached to measure the taper. The straight edge is marked at 300mm. The dial gauge is traversed exactly 300mm to measure the taper.

The factory follower uses a ball bearing or a point. These are great to follow a profile. I made brass skates so that any imperfections in the straight edge would be smoothed over.

Note that the colour of the swarf matches the Viceroy blue. Cermet inserts produce really hot chips.

Dazz

Again, it's great to see you making good stuff the "old way"
Although easy to program and quicker to setup, I don't think a stepper CNC would do as good a job...you'd probably notice the steps in the taper.

Hi.

It seems a well thought out copy/taper attachment - rare though - there's a machine on eBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150836543864) at the moment which seems to include most of one.

My recently acquired machine does not seem to have any of the attachment points - either on the bed or on the cross-slide - you'd need to mount the taper turner (factory version). The flats are there on the back of the bed - just no tapped holes (I guess it's that way 'round) into which to screw the brackets that mount the bar.

Maybe I'll have to do something about that whilst the lathe is in bits being cleaned etc.

Questions for Admin I suspect:

Is there a bed drawing available somewhere that shows what the mounting points are meant to be like - I can't find a drawing number for this bed in the drawings list - although that for the 280VS is ML100/402 - are the beds the same?

Also - is the drawing set for the copying/taper turning attachment known to exist anywhere? I guess that's the ML126/1 - ML126/16 series....

Thanks,

Youra.

Hi

The rear threaded mounting points are not on the flats. They are in the blue painted valleys.
The threaded mounting points on the cross slide are on the side. If you look carefully at the photos above, they show their locations. Their location is not critical.

The one on ebay has the centres but not the straight edge and pivots. I don't see the springs or the mountings either.
It would be relatively easy to fabricate a factory copy. There are no dove tails, precision machining or complex shapes. A similar system could be retrofitted to any lathe.

Dazz

The bed drawings are 'interesting' to find a match for a particular lathe model or to see how a particular feature fitted, as many variants were done under different revisions of the same drawing number. So they need to be read in conjunction with the relevant change notes as listed in their change columns.
If the 280VS list is showing an ML- number for the bed, then yes it was carried over from the 5" models.


Yes it does.
I'll send the photo I have of ML126 to Admin and see if he can reduce the file size whilst keeping the detail readable.
I also have photos of a few of the detail drawings - so if anyone wants something in particular please ask.

Andy

Here is the drawing AndyB had, ML126 - copying attachment arrangement

Thanks for that drawing Andy

I think it's clear enough that I'll not need the sub drawings to brew something up of my own that follows the general idea, although I guess posting them so there's a record here would hurt nobody

Dazz - I've looked carefully, and there are no tapped holes anywhere near the flats - I guess my bed simply wasn't machined with them for some reason...

Should be easy enough to organise, although I'll have to flatten to mounting pads/flats off al little better than what seems to be their current 'as cast' state.

Cheers,

Youra.

Hi

You just need to drill and tap suitable holes on the cross slide. No need to machine around the pads.
If you need any additional photos or dimensions, just let me know.


Dazz

Thanks Dazz - I think I should be able to manage - I'll get back to you otherwise!

The only reason for machining the mounting pads a little is to make sure they are perpendicular to the bed so I can mount the support arms without the casting draft angle throwing things out of square, although I guess I could in principle make up a couple of wedges of some sort to compensate instead...

I'll have the bed off the stand shortly in any case, so that would be the time to do it, or at least check what the situation actually is.

I've also started a thread here on slotted cross-slides:

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=3787

which you may have a comment on perhaps.....?

Cheers,

Youra.

I've also added the original copy / taper turning attachment leaflet:
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=3811