Bull nose center with no tang

[jbaccell]

I have had quite a few accessories without a tang and they still ejected fine. Have you tried it?

 

[tailstock4]

Adding a button to the end of a tailstock center is a very workable solution to the problem of not ejecting the center. Another issue is with the tailstock screw.

A longer tailstock screw will eject anything in the taper but will do so at a loss of ram travel. It is a choice by manufacturers. Back in the days when tailstocks were actually longer than they were tall and often times had quite a bit of travel, giving up a little bit of distance of ram travel was more common.

The more modern machines, in an effort to try to extend swings while keeping the costs down, have made tailstocks much shorter in terms of length on the bed and ram length although there are still a few machines that buck this trend. As an example, the TOS I’m currently working on has a tailstock which is quite a bit longer than it is tall, and it will eject anything put in the taper. But it has enough travel length that the loss is insignificant.

So another solution could be to make a new, longer screw if you could live with the tradeoff's.

 

[Threadkiller]

As always this forum never disappoints. I actually put a screw in the end and loc tited it in. I tried just the threaded portion of a screw without the head but my tailstock didnt like ejecting it too easily. Once I left the head on it works like a charm now. Ugly but it works. Ill get pictures later. I also put a bolt in my live center which was actually threaded which was convenient.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

I just bought a bull nose center from harbor freight. Nice piece for $30, the bearing feels smooth and it looks like decent quality. Only problem is it doesn’t have a tang on the back to eject it out of the tailstock. It’s just a blank hole no threads. I was thinking of maybe drilling and tapping it and putting a short stud in the end? Any ideas? I’ve attached pictures. The missing paint on the back is from me prying on it to get it out of the tailstock View attachment 469095View attachment 469096View attachment 469097

Think I would test it first then if needed I would machine a piece of brass with a sligh press fit and lightly tap it in with a hammer.