- Joined
- Nov 8, 2020
- Messages
- 44
Most lathes' compound have a locking feature that engages with a hole in the underside of the toolpost/QCTP and that prevents rotation of the toolpost/QCTP during heavy cuts. On my lathe I only ever need this locking pin once or twice per year. I had to do some heavy internal threading were in the past I had problems with the QCTP rotating so I tried to get the pin engaged in the QCTP.
I already had the problem in the past that the spring loaded pin was stuck a bit in its hole and it had to be loosened with a hammer. But this time the hardened pin has duck/wedged itself in the soft cast iron in a way that was impossible to get it out. Since its also a blind hole my last resort was unfortunately to remove most of the pin on the mill until the rest came out. The original bore in the cast iron is still intact. (What looks like a crack at the top of the hole is only swarf)
So I was wondering how I best fix this... using a hardened pin again in soft cast iron will most likely result in the same outcome over time. I could press in a hardened bushing and then use a hardened pin. But maybe someone has a completely different solution for locking the QCTP during heavy cuts that might work better? The QCTP I use is a Dickson clone.
I already had the problem in the past that the spring loaded pin was stuck a bit in its hole and it had to be loosened with a hammer. But this time the hardened pin has duck/wedged itself in the soft cast iron in a way that was impossible to get it out. Since its also a blind hole my last resort was unfortunately to remove most of the pin on the mill until the rest came out. The original bore in the cast iron is still intact. (What looks like a crack at the top of the hole is only swarf)
So I was wondering how I best fix this... using a hardened pin again in soft cast iron will most likely result in the same outcome over time. I could press in a hardened bushing and then use a hardened pin. But maybe someone has a completely different solution for locking the QCTP during heavy cuts that might work better? The QCTP I use is a Dickson clone.
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