When I acquired my Harrison lathe, it came with a couple of pieces of tooling. One was a JFK collet closer that needed a lot of work to get it cleaned up and running smooth. I imagine just about everyone has seen one of those before. There was another attachment that most of us are familiar with at least in theory, and that is a tailstock offset center for turning tapers without having to alter your tailstock offset. There are a multitude of them of a couple of different designs on Amazon, and I know that some folks have made their own. The one I ended up with is a commercially made unit that is unique from all the others I have seen. The center runs in a precision bore, is adjusted by an acme screw, and has a very robust locking mechanism that consists of a gib like part, and it is tightened down by a knob. The end of the knob has a recess and there is a 1/4 ball that engages the gib. The gib is not a gib in the truest sense of the word because it doesn't adjust lash, but is just there to lock the adjustment.
The entire thing is very robust, and if I had to guess, I would say that it is close to 10 lbs. That is a #3 Morse taper, to give it a sense of scale.
I have searched the web a couple of times and have found no information about the manufacturer, nor have I found anything similar. Any of you guys ever seen one?
The entire thing is very robust, and if I had to guess, I would say that it is close to 10 lbs. That is a #3 Morse taper, to give it a sense of scale.
I have searched the web a couple of times and have found no information about the manufacturer, nor have I found anything similar. Any of you guys ever seen one?
