- Joined
- Dec 31, 2010
- Messages
- 937
Sometime back we had a good discussion about tailstocks when drilling etc. Yesterday I decided to reassemble mine; it has only been laying around with out the clamp most of the winter. The clamp is cast iron and has two curved ribs parallel to the ways on the bottom side and has machined corners also parallel to the ways to clamp the bottom of the ways. After reading Bob Korves' blog? I also found paint under the ways in the clamping area. That was addressed using a power drill and a 3" diameter paint/rust buffing wheel.
The clamp had paint on one entire machined surface and about 1/3 of the paint gone off the other clamping surface. I checked the alignment on the top of my vise jaw to find 0.004" difference corner to corner. .Bit the bullet and placed the errant machined surfaces on the vise. Using a 1/2" roughing mill I machined 1.25"+/- flats in the arches. Turned the clamp over and after alignment machined the paint off both faces of the factory machined surfaces. Moved to the other side with the same depth of cut but was only able to remove about 1/2 of the paint along the clamping surface. Lowered the mill 0.005" and recut both clamping surfaces. There was still a strip of pain about 1/64 wide on the one surface but decided if the mill didn't get it, it probably wont hurt to leave it.
Re-assembled the tailstock and started cranking. At first I thought the tailstock was moving when I pushed against a 1.25" aluminum rod in the 4 jaw. The rod belongs to a neighbor so I have some copper softeners on the jaws but the rod moved back into the chuck. A cheater wrench will be required to tighten the jaws further so will have to wait for another project for confirmation of improvement, but at this time I am sure I have made an improvement.
Have a good day
Ray
The clamp had paint on one entire machined surface and about 1/3 of the paint gone off the other clamping surface. I checked the alignment on the top of my vise jaw to find 0.004" difference corner to corner. .Bit the bullet and placed the errant machined surfaces on the vise. Using a 1/2" roughing mill I machined 1.25"+/- flats in the arches. Turned the clamp over and after alignment machined the paint off both faces of the factory machined surfaces. Moved to the other side with the same depth of cut but was only able to remove about 1/2 of the paint along the clamping surface. Lowered the mill 0.005" and recut both clamping surfaces. There was still a strip of pain about 1/64 wide on the one surface but decided if the mill didn't get it, it probably wont hurt to leave it.
Re-assembled the tailstock and started cranking. At first I thought the tailstock was moving when I pushed against a 1.25" aluminum rod in the 4 jaw. The rod belongs to a neighbor so I have some copper softeners on the jaws but the rod moved back into the chuck. A cheater wrench will be required to tighten the jaws further so will have to wait for another project for confirmation of improvement, but at this time I am sure I have made an improvement.
Have a good day
Ray
