Milling The Rack Channel Off the Taig Lathe Bed

I wanted to see how hard it was to remove the rack channel from the bed for those who don't want to flip the bed around when retrofitting the new lathe power feed.

The channel.

I wanted to see if it could be sawn off easily using a hacksaw blade (without a frame, as the rack channel is too long). Short answer is that it would take you a very long time.

The bed set up on the mill.

I was able to mill almost the whole channel off in one pass.

Then I had to re-clamp to get the last little bit.

All gone.

Enough clearance for the lead screw coupling.

And the screw.

So if you have a mill it's doable. Without a mill you are probably better off just flipping the bed 180 and living with the foot at the other end.

Back to Work, New Pics, Article, etc.

Back to work!

Rick Kernell sent in these pictures of his graduated Taig lathe handwheel.

"The power feed is working really well. This idea has been rattling in my head for a while. Maybe some one else may find this a help.
The new carriage feed moves at 1.800 inch per revolution. I marked off the wheel so that each 0.100 inch and 0.300 inch (black lines) has graduations. They are not knock-dead accurate due to the lead screw/gear play, but they are surprisingly reproducible."

Note that this is the new power feed version of the lathe. Rick was one of the first people to make the conversion.

Keith Brooke sent in a short PDF article on his method of Free-Hand Turning on the Taig Lathe.

Jacobs closed its last US plant so there are some deals out there. One that caught my eye: Jacobs 6208 1B Medium DutyChuck 6.5 mm 3/8-Inch 24tpi, There are some other good deals if you search for Jacobs on Amazon, especially if you need large 30 to 50 taper end mill holders.
[EDIT, it appears the deal on the chuck is gone and it's back to the regular price]

Finally, for those of you who probe in Mach3, there's a great probing routine here that promises to greatly reduce time. I haven't tried it yet but the thread on the Mach forum is encouraging.

Stephen Ellacott's Taig Lathe Powerfeed

Stephen Ellacott sent in pictures of his latest project. This is the first project I've seen that takes advantage of the dovetail on the front of the new extruded carriage.

"I hate lead screws...big floppy swarf magnets....there, I've said it. So I'm working on motorizing the carriage traverse to try to provide the same smooth finish as a lead screw. Here are some shots of the prototype version that I thought you might enjoy. The regular traversing handle and pinion has been replaced with the geared pinion and a block with the Geared Motor (5RPM) and drive gear attached."

"It slides onto the dovetail on the front of the carriage and is snugged against the pinion gear (whatever size you want) and tightened in place. I used two 12 tooth 24 pitch Acetal gears for the prototype - probably brass for the real thing."

"The 12V motor reversing circuit controls the carriage with three buttons- Forward, Stop and Reverse. You must hit Stop before changing direction. I'll package this up in a 1.5" x 3" swarf proof project box when I'm done. It draws about 70mA cutting .0010" in brass at a 3 inch/minute traverse with the one-to-one gear ratio (too fast, but it was easier to layout the prototype using like gears). The goal is to be able to loosen one thumb screw, slide the motor block to the left and have manual traverse back. Total cost - less than $30 (real dollars). The final pinion gear may just be the stock handle with gears cut around the perimeter....Hmmm...may have to order one.."

"A better shot of it installed using dovetail clamping (works great!) with the body cut down to size."

"Another shot of the back of the block. Just loosen the 10-32 set screw and it slides off under the cross-slide knob."

Pictures also posted on Cartertools.