Should I cut my arbor to be able to bore deeper?

[Richard Berry]

I have an Axminster AC305WL lathe. One of its shortcomings is how little travel there is on the tail stock, a maximum of 5 centimetres.

I have just added a new chuck to my accessories but unfortunately, because of the length of arbor, it is ejected from the tail stock after only 3.5 centimetres of travel.

If I were to shorten the arbor by cutting off the black, flattened extension then I would gain back the 1.5 centimetres of travel allowed by the tail stock.

I cannot see what purpose it serves, except perhaps as a method of securing it whilst being machined.

I intend to use a cutoff disk on my angle grinder to do the job.

Can anyone come up with a reason why this proposal might be a bad idea?

 

[Lorenzl]

I would guess it is there to stop the morse taper getting damaged when removing. As far as I know it isn't used as a drive as the morse taper is good enough to do it with fiction.

Would you still be able to eject the drill chuck if it was removed?

I should say our metal lathe's at work don't have the flat area on any of the drill chucks or revolving centres.

 

[niall Y]

The only downside I can see is that you might not be able to remove it after use .i have a revolving centre on one of my lathes whose arbor is shorter than the others and I often have difficulty removing it.

 

[Richard Berry]

Thanks for the prompt responses. Yes, there should be no problem removing the arbor from the chuck, though I intend to leave it permanently on the chuck. If I were to purchase any additional accessories requiring the same arbor then I would just splash for an additional, dedicated arbor. They're cheap enough.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Is it a 2MT? You could get a tangless 2MT - 1MT sleeve and see if it ejects or whether you have problems getting it out. Useful things to have, anyway.

 

[user 35906]

If I understand you correctly, cutting off the tang won't allow the taper to go in further, it is the taper that mates with the tailstock sleeve and grips. The tang is there for ejection of the taper, at least on my metal lathe.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you're boring the same sized holes regularly, MT drills are cheap enough and may give you a bit more clearance than a chuck + bit.

https://www.ukdrills.com/morse-taper-shank

 

[Lorenzl]

The tang is there for ejection of the taper, at least on my metal lathe.

That is the problem; when winding back the tailstock the morse taper is ejected too soon by the length of the tang.

What is really needed is as @Phil Pascoe said is a tangless adaptor

 

[Richard Berry]

Yes Lorenzi, that is exactly the problem. The arbor is ejected before I can retract the tail stock to its full depth.

 

[Richard Berry]

If you're boring the same sized holes regularly, MT drills are cheap enough and may give you a bit more clearance than a chuck + bit.

https://www.ukdrills.com/morse-taper-shank

I never knew they existed. That is great info. Thanks Phil.

 

[recipio]

I would say my old Tyme Avon tailstock has about 5 cms of travel as well. The tang is to help with ejection and is there for a reason. Can you not just retract the tailstock after drilling and manually move it along until the job is done. ?

 

[Sachakins]

The tangs are there when you needed a tapered drift to remove them when there is a slot in side the sleeve. Normally found on engineering equipment.
Assuming you have a self ejecting tailstock, then yes you can remove it.
My sip mini lathe lathe has same problem, so I cut mine down, to match the size of the stubby live centre taper that came with it, and all is fine. Just don't cut it too short.
It will still work in any sleeve we're you use a knock out bar down the sleeve/spindle.
But you won't be able to use it if they spindle is slotted on the side to take a tapered drift for removal.
This shows a side drift removal and why tang is there.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Thinking about it - the tapered arbor sits in a tapered hole.

If it is is sitting properly in the headstock without any slop or wobble, then insertion of the arbor is limited by the diameter of the taper, not the flat on the end.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The taper fits, the problem is with the ejection.

 

[Paul Hannaby]

If you remove the flat, the self eject probably won't work but you might gain a few mm extra travel of the quill. The purpose of the flat is to engage in a slot on some morse taper to prevent the arbour from rotating when drilling but the slot doesn't seem to be included on most woodturning lathes.

 

[stuart little]

The tang is for ejection more from pillar drill quills by means of taper drift + hammer.

 

[Paul Hannaby]

Not necessarily - I have a MT2 to MT2 adapter I use on the lathe and that's slotted to prevent rotation

 

[Inspector]

To know whether and how much you can cut off the taper, back the tailstock until it is retracted to its minimum and with a small scale/rule see how deep you can get. Compare it to the morse tapering see how much extra there is. That is what you could cut off plus a little to make sure the ejecting stuff can still push it out. If you cut off too much you won't easily be able to get it out again unless you can get a knockout bar in from the tailstock handle end, or dig up every beating and graunching tool you have.

Pete

 

[Sachakins]

Not necessarily - I have a MT2 to MT2 adapter I use on the lathe and that's slotted to prevent rotation

Why would you have an MT2 to MT2 adapter, I'm intrigued?

 

[Sandyn]

Does this lathe actually have 'auto ejection' or is it just a quirk of using the longer MT2 taper with tang. According to the user manual, there is a tool supplied for removing tailstock and headstock tooling, so the tailstock should have a hole all the way through, so what knocks the chuck out? Possibly just the internal design. There must be a reduced diameter in the tailstock which is big enough for the removal tool, but snags the longer tang of the chuck MT2 taper. It should be OK to cut the taper to the required length, but once done, clean up the cut and putthe chuck in very carefully to check the removal tool knocks it out.