Actually, I also solved the problem in a similar fashion, but my posted
solution which follows was lost in the pandemonium created by the original
question.
PS: problem solved-
Took an imported Morse #2 sleeve which had an OD of 28 MM and turned it down
to 1", cut off the end and drilled it through to 27/64ths and borrowed a
1/2" LH acme tap and tapped it- aside from the drive to my friend's shop
for the tap, total time 20 minutes. The only thing left is to mill the slot
for the key- If I buy the lathe I will do it after measuring the key- if not
I will send the part to the owner with my compliments.
"EdFielder" wrote in message
k.net...
This original subject was started under the heading of
" Exporting Jobs- Gee I wonder why" and quickly degenerated into one of
those endless back and forth arguments about the world economy etc.
However, the original post was about why this little piece cost 330.00.
There were some who defended the price with all sorts of stuff about shelf
storage costs, plant overhead, machine amortization, labor costs and so
on.
After reading all this stuff I said to myself " Wait a minute, why has
this
simple job turned into some internet version of a Government commission?
Isn't the real issue how do we get this tailstock ram at a reasonable
price
to fix this old lathe." Then I remembered the old saying about " American
ingenuity" and thought, why in all this talk is there not one of these
people who can solve this simple problem. After all, aren't machinist
supposed to be problem solvers? Anyway I did some research and found the
dimensions of this item- its 6.5" long, 1" O.D. and has an MT 2 taper
inside, has a .125 slot for the key and a 10 TPI left hand acme nut in
the
end. pretty simple to make on a home lathe in a few hours, but I thought
this stuff all sounds like shelf items-
Searched my catalogues and found-
1/2" 10 TPI LH acme nut for 1.26
Morse taper drill sleeve with 1" O.D. and MT 2 inside, hardened and
ground-
USA version 8.00 - Import Version 2.95
Bought 2 of the nuts and 1 each of the sleeves
Cheapie version- Used the Import piece and just welded the nut to the end-
time to set up, center and weld- 5 minutes
Cadillac version bored the USA sleeve and turned the nut down and
pressed
in and drilled for a set screw
25 minutes
Milled the 1/8" slot in both units- another 10 minutes.
Conclusion A- for a guy fixing his old lathe he could do a quickie fix
that
works fine for 5.00 in parts and 10 minutes time. For a " restorer type"
he
could duplicate the original for about 10.00 in parts and 1/2 hour of
time.
Conclusion B- There is no reason that the South Bend parts people could
not
make these things and sell them for 30.00 each, just by examining the
problem and finding a simple solution
Conclusion C- Utilizing the time spent by everyone on this board yabbering
about the world economy we could have built 100 of these things.
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