"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
news
Overall I am pretty happy with my Chinese made Precision mathews
PM1440LBE lathe. However there are some little things that just
make me go, "Hmmmmm...."

The 1440 mostly gets used for quick and dirty single setup one off
projects. This means most of the time the 3 jaw scroll chuck is the
most efficent. Sometimes I have to dial stuff in to the exisitng
part and the 4 jaw gets swapped on. So far I haven't needed the
faceplae, but I can envision several types of jobs where I would use
it.

Recently my success and happiness with the little 3C hand wheel
closer on the small 8.5x18 HF lathe got me thinking that there would
be jobs that would be handy to do with a 5C closer on the 1440.

I recently picked of a lever style collet closer. The price was
cheap enough I don't mind using it as a learning tool, or even
scrapping it after learning how to make one if necessary. Now to
figure out how to setup a spindle adapter. I've found MT5 to 5C
adapters. The factory claims the spindle bore is MT6, but it also
came with a "MT6" to MT4 adapter so I can turn between centers if I
so choose. I figured a cheap import MT6 to MT5 adapter would
atleast get me in the right ballpark to start figuring stuff out.

I didn't even have to put the import adapter in the spindle to see
it didn't match up. Its a different taper angle than the adapter
that came with the lathe. So...

I dropped Precision Mathews an email and asked what the heck the
spindle bore really is. This is their reply.

************
"Hi Bob, They are listed from the factory as MT6. But our other
machines are listed the same way, and its actually an MT 5-1/2
So that might be it."
************

Ok.... I had not heard of half sizes before and a cursory search
doesn't bring them up.

.... grumble grumble grumble ....

Now for the fun part. The lever closer did come with a 5C adapter.
I don't know what the outside is, but... It doesn't fit in a MT4 or
an MT5 sleeve. Is it an MT4-1/2?

Please don't throw away anything that might fit a South Bend Heavy 10.

Since you have examples of the required tapers you could set the
compound to their angles with an indicator and make a sleeve.

When I tried this to make taper adapters for my surface grinder
spindle I found out how worn the compound on my 1965-vintage lathe
was.
-jsw