On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:17:04 -0500, Louis Ohland
wrote:

I see that my lathe has a collar that fits over the base of the
compound. There are two nuts to tighten or loosen the collar, allowing
the compound to turn. Has anyone used a lever like on a mill table to
tighten the collar down?

Hi Louis,

This collar is a weak point on the 9x20 lathes.

I've been toying with making my own replacement, a bit
different than the other solutions I've seen so far.

It would look something like this:

http://www.iserv.net/~lfisk/compoundholder.png

I just made a rough draft for you to see my idea. It needs
to be around 1/2 to 5/8 inch thick. You would have to
measure the distance from you compound to the cross slide
for an exact measurement on thickness. I recall you
mentioning that the new tool holder you installed is a bit
too high. After removing the degree ring (necessary mod)
from the bottom of the round column you may be able to move
the compound down a slight amount too.

The slot could be cut so that the cross bolt is tightened
from the right hand side (or left) rather than the front as
in my crude diagram. I'm not too sure where the optimum
position for it may be yet.

This should make for a lot more support/rigidity on the
front of the compound assembly. You would get your easy to
adjust compound angle too, with just one hex head cap-bolt.

Downside is losing the degree ring. A lot of guys already
use a separate protractor for setting the angle anyway and I
would like to have the extra support/rigidity myself.

I think this should work okay, but I haven't tried it yet
and could easily be missing some obvious problem with it...

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email