JET 1642 Tailstock

[delaney001]

HI,

Have the below lathe, have an issue with the tailstock. The guide piece of metal, i have highlighted below (google image) is not present on my lathe. There is one at the back of the tailstock unit, but there isnt one at the front. This means when you slide the tailstock up to the piece, you can push the live-centre about 1" across the work piece, and therefore it is very hard to quickly centre line the tailstock to the workpiece.

Anyone ever come across this? Bought the lathe second hand so not sure if previous owner removed it for some reason (doesnt look like anything was ground away) or broke away or something.
Any suggestions for fixing.

Will try get an image of my own machine this evening.

 

[Dave Brookes]

That’s weird, it must have been there at some point.
The only thing I can suggest is to screw a block (preferably metal) to the front of the tailstock so that it fits snugly between the bed bars.
Before finally screwing up tight, align centres in the headstock and tailstock.
Dave

 

[delaney001]

Ya i was thinking about doing that. Assuming the tailstock is cast, is there any challenge/risk to drilling and tapping cast metal?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It's for alignment only so you could stick a piece of steel with JB Weld or similar. It would never move.
You could get one of these - Axminster Lathe Alignment Centre 2MT
and insert it in the headstock and tailstock while fixing it. They're a useful thing to have anyway if you have a swivel headstock - sometimes their lining up is suspect.

 

[Dave Brookes]

You could carefully drill and tap it using a set of taps, I would be wary of using an all in one drill tap as cast iron is want to chip.
Alternatively, scrape off some paint down to bare metal and Araldite the metal alignment block in place. Be sure to abrade both surfaces with 120 grit to give a key to the adhesive.

dave