alternate chambering question

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rain164845

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I have a lot of slop in my lathe tailstock. Also, the travel is pretty short, 1.5" . It seems that using a mt2 quick change toolpost holder with a floating reamer holder would allow me to set my reamer dead nuts, have the benefit of power feed, and would be easier to control the depth of cut. I don't have a good way to mount a dro or indicator on my tailstock. Any thoughts?
 
Repair tailstock slop

Moglice your tailstock in alignment and in place on the lathe google it.:cool:
 
rain164845 said:
I have a lot of slop in my lathe tailstock. Also, the travel is pretty short, 1.5" . It seems that using a mt2 quick change toolpost holder with a floating reamer holder would allow me to set my reamer dead nuts, have the benefit of power feed, and would be easier to control the depth of cut. I don't have a good way to mount a dro or indicator on my tailstock. Any thoughts?
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Sure. I think I would still hand feed with the carriage hand wheel.
 
I have set up this way but lacked the testicular foritude to use the power feed. Another time I held the floating holder and reamer in the chuck and the barrel in a Palmgren milling vise on the toolpost. This was an over/under barrel set. Again, no power feed ( yep, chicken!). Regards, Bill
 
Use the MARS reamer stop from PTG . Simple idea wish I was smart enough to figure that out . I bought one a year or 2 ago and it works great ! Works great for nailing the headspacing .
Chris
 
I've been relying upon the tailstock graduations to ream to depth for a long time and am happy enough with the results. I can see where a reamer stop would be useful though. Regards, Bill
 
Bill, I'm with you. The grads on my Heavy 10 are as accurate as any micrometer I have. Some of these Chicom lathes that don't have a graduated dial the Nat Lambeth/PTG attachment would be handy.
 
I used to have a dial indicator with a mag mount on the tailstock, but found the graduations were right on. This reamer stop thing, seems to me you have to have the tenon dead nuts to use it. Not that there is a problem in doing that, but the tenon has to be established first.
 
Wayne Shaw said:
I used to have a dial indicator with a mag mount on the tailstock, but found the graduations were right on. This reamer stop thing, seems to me you have to have the tenon dead nuts to use it. Not that there is a problem in doing that, but the tenon has to be established first.
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I think you will find that the reamer stop index is the shoulder, not the end of the barrel tenon. Tenon length then has no bearing on headspace.

Anyway, that is the way the one that I made works.

Rob
 
It's surprising to me to hear that so many set the headspace with the reamer. First, I rough in the tenon, then I deep chamber by .010 or so, polish the chamber, and then set headspace with the carriage when I face the shoulder. I use a dial indicator, and getting my chambers to the same depth is butt simple. Then I finish turning, and thread the roughed in tenon. When I first started chambering barrels, I used to set with the reamer, but wouldn't consider going back now. Just another way to skin the cat.
 
Rob Carnell said:
I think you will find that the reamer stop index is the shoulder, not the end of the barrel tenon. Tenon length then has no bearing on headspace.

Anyway, that is the way the one that I made works.

Rob
Click to expand...

The reamer stop that is talked about here, the pictures of it I have seen, stop against the tenon. I have my own tools that are similar to what you are talking about, and is what I use, which works of the shoulder. Tenon, cone depth and headspace all with the same tool.
 
I love my mars reamer stop. my hand wheel is also very accurate on my tail, but I find it a bit tricky at times feeling exactly when my reamer starts cutting that first .001. Once I feel that first .001 of cut, I can count on the wheel how much further to go. I could always get close this way, but with the MARS I hit dead nutz!! Lee
 
I have a MARS and overshot the HS every time I have used it. I must be using the GI Joe kung fu grip when wheeling in the tailstock but I am the only person I've heard of having this problem. I went back to my old way reading a dial indicator off the tailstock and have never overshot a HS. Now I'm doing it rigidly on a turning center and have to screw up some math to overshoot. I won't admit to that ever happening...

Edit: as far as using a floating reamer holder off a tool post, I think it is a very viable way of chambering. Especially with a DRO. I have not done it but a couple things to consider is the force may try to unload your carriage from the ways because the machine is designed to typically have the cutting forces work with gravity and keeping the ways loaded. Another thing to keep in mind is the amount of slop/backlash between the gear and rack on the carriage wheel. I could see a drill trying to pull the backlash out and over drilling a few thousandths but I don't think a reamer would have that tendency. Again, I have not tried this method so these are probably non-issues but they did pop into my head when thinking about it.

As far as power feed, with a good flush system and a 3 or 4 flute carbide reamer, I could see using it to ream the entire chamber short of final HS in one peck. With standard HSS reamers, I think the amount of time spent in each peck/retract, the power feed would not be practical.
 
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I believe some years ago Chad Dixon posted a pic that he uses the QCTP and "something" (don't know what it was) to push/hold/drive the reamer, not the tailstock. Maybe it would come up on a search?
 
This is one of my HS checking gauges. I have them in a couple different setups for different type receivers. Slide your HS gauge into the chamber, screw my tool on and measure.

I ream until it measures the same as my notes in my book or the measurement on the barrel that I just took off. Starting with a new receiver and no barrel, I take my measurements as all (most) do.
Back to the OP's question. I don't care about the wear in my tail stock. My Clausing came without any graduations on my tailstock wheel. I took the dial from the knee of a Bridgeport and machined the end of the tailstock next to the handwheel. Now I have graduations. I found it to be dead nuts. I use a pusher similar to a Bald Eagle. I do not want any tool influencing the direction of the reamer.
wswly8.jpg
 
Thanks.

Thanks for the insight gentlemen. I do not have graduations on the handwheel of my heavy 10. It also has aLOT of slop and backlash. I would be afraid to use it to chamber. Seems like the short travel would get irritating also. Maybe with a reamer pusher like Butch´s. I will give it some thought.
 
Wayne Shaw said:
I believe some years ago Chad Dixon posted a pic that he uses the QCTP and "something" (don't know what it was) to push/hold/drive the reamer, not the tailstock. Maybe it would come up on a search?
Click to expand...

He's been using a turning center as long as I've seen him posting on the internet but it is possible. There are other people using a tool holder/tool post on a Haas TL series lathes though.
 
rain164845 said:
Thanks for the insight gentlemen. I do not have graduations on the handwheel of my heavy 10. It also has aLOT of slop and backlash. I would be afraid to use it to chamber. Seems like the short travel would get irritating also. Maybe with a reamer pusher like Butch´s. I will give it some thought.
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I have two heavy 10's. One is the later double tumbler series and the other one is the earlier version with the single tumbler. They both have graduated tail stock wheels. I didn't know they came any other way.
 
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