"Buddy Matlosz" wrote in message
...
Interesting. Is the bolt tightened from the outside, or is there maybe an
inboard locking lever? Is there some kind of indexing mechanism to ensure
the extensions are perfectly parallel to the ways? If not, is it difficult
to get them parallel by hand/eye?

B.

"Dick Mahany" wrote in message
...
I really like the Robust tailstock Tilt-Away idea and decided to try and
make one for my Jet 1642 lathe. I wish I had done this long ago.
Completely eliminates what Bill Grumbine calls "turner's elbow" ! (I just
hope my amateur welding holds up). Thanks to Robust for the great idea.




The pivot bolt is a 3/4" dia shoulder bolt that is screwed into a flange nut
that is welded to a square mounting plate. The shoulder bolt holds two
flanged bearings that pilot on the ID of the center tube. It is tightened
form the outside with a large allen wrench. The pivot is free to rotate and
is held in position simply by gravity. I thought of making some kind of
locking mechanism, but didn't seem to need it once I got it in position.

To level the two sets of ways, I simply have a pair of 5/16 bolts that are
threaded through square nuts that are captured inside each end of a piece
of 3/4 square tubing. The tubing is fastened to the leg casting below the
pivot with hex screws. The bolts allow for rotational fine tuning of each
of the ways and are locked with a simple jam nut. They contact the side of
the C-channel that the ways are welded to, and make up for the lack of
angular precision (none) between the two sets of ways. I don't need any
other adjustments because I tack-welded the assembly with the ways
pre-aligned on the lathe and then finished the welding after removal. In
all, I tried to keep it simple and it seems to work quite nicely.

This pivot works great for the tailstock and other things like the banjo or
a bowl steady, but unlike the Robust Lathe version, I would never think of
sliding the headstock onto it.

Dick