Chuck Sherwood wrote:

Be *very* cautious in your application of carriage stops, especially if you
machine doesn't have a reactionary clutch for the longitudinal feed. One
mistake can cost you the feed train. It's especially bad if you're using a



very true, but hitting anything can be bad news. For example I frequently
use a carriage stop when turning to a shoulder. I believe that running
the toolbit into the shoulder isn't much different than running the
carriage into the carriage stop. Both will put a big load on the feed train.
You got to know when to dis-engage!

cs
If I understand you correctly, that's pretty much what I do. when
turning, I run the feed until the carriage is ALMOST to the carriage
stop, then disengage the feed, and finish to the stop by hand feeding
the carriage.

When threading, I first cut a stop groove at the end of thread location
(when that is permissible), then cut the thread, I run the carriage
under power until the threading tool is in the stop groove, then
disengage the feed. I don't see much use for the carriage stop here,
except to keep you from accidentally HAND running the carriage past the
stop groove,or running into the chuck.

Sure, if you run into the stop under power feed you'll likely make a
mess of things. But you'll make just as big, or maybe worse, a mess by
over running your cut into a shoulder, or running the carriage into the
chuck.

A carriage stop the automatically disengages the feed is a whole
different animal than a passive stop. Most small lathes don't have that
feature.

Like most everything, carriage stops have their place, and they can be
mis-used.

Dan Mitchell
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