small mod on a Chester Comet lathe.

[wheeltapper]

Hi
For some time now I've been getting fed up with the topslide on my lathe.
it gets in the way, it puts too much flex in the tool ( tool cutting on the return pass) and I only need it for cutting a taper.

so I took it off.

heres what I have now.



I also made a seperate block to go in place of the QC holder to hold standard half inch round shank boring bars.



the whole thing is much stiffer now.

Roy.

[spuddevans]

That looks really effective Roy That is a mod that I could do with on my lathe, it might remove some of the elastic properties that my little lathe suffers from.


Tim

[j45on]

Nice one Roy 
I have a C4 as well and the top slide is a bit poo I have the gibs locked up almost solid.
I like your solid mounting Idea I may have to copy it 

PS what is that in you tail stock 

[raynerd]

Wheeltapper - the chap who I visit quite often has an Asian made lathe and he has done exactly the same! It seems the topslides are made of rubber. Nice job, thanks for showing.

[Stilldrillin]

Yep!

Me too.....  http://madmodder.net/index.php?topic=2464.0

It doesn't half make a difference! 

Like your rear toolpost too! 

David D

[picclock]

Hi Roy

That's a very nice looking job. I did this to my Real Bull 7x14 some time ago and the improvement was spectacular. But I made mine out of a block which could be fitted 4 ways allowing different toolholder offsets and overhangs for awkward jobs. Mine attaches with 4 cap head bolts.



IMHO, its probably one of the most worthwhile mods for smaller lathes, as it allows easy parting and much better finishes just because of the improvement in rigidity. For fine feed a handle on the right hand end of the leadscrew does the trick on mine.

Now if only I could figure out how to turn tapers without having to reset that precision tailstock alignment .. .

Best Regards

picclock

[jim]

worth while mod

[wheeltapper]

Nice one Roy 
I have a C4 as well and the top slide is a bit poo I have the gibs locked up almost solid.
I like your solid mounting Idea I may have to copy it 

PS what is that in you tail stock 

Hi
Its a cork, It keeps the crap out.

Roy

[jim]

Nice one Roy 
I have a C4 as well and the top slide is a bit poo I have the gibs locked up almost solid.
I like your solid mounting Idea I may have to copy it 

PS what is that in you tail stock 

Hi
Its a cork, It keeps the crap out.

Roy

likewise! its easier to push a cork in, than clear all the crap out!

[wheeltapper]

Hi
Just as a tailpiece to this I tried a little test.
I set up a dti on the cross slide with the probe resting 2mm from the tip of a r h tool.

taking a 2 mm cut with the toolpost mod I got a tool deflection of .0004"

with the topslide refitted I got over 7 times that deflection.

I think it was worth doing.


there is, however, a downside (isn't there always) I now have no fine feed along the lathe, I have not got a handwheel on the leadscrew and even if I had one it would be a pain because there is no quick way to disconnect the leadscrew apart from removing a change wheel.


Ho hum, you win some, you lose some.

Roy