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tapered pins made on a mini lathe

4K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  frdtigerr 
#1 ·
G'day all you guys out there. I'm certain many of you have good working knowledge of Mini lathes, to that end.I would like to ask this.
I've never used a lathe, so my knowledge is nil. I build harps and am looking into making my own tuning pegs. These are round mild steel or brass from 2 to 5 inches long tapering from 6 to 5 mm with a square section at the thick end to accommodate a tuning key and a small hole at the thin end for the string. Can any of you say if this can be made on a basic mini lathe. I hope to make them in the hundreds.
You advice will be much appreciated.
 
#2 ·
I believe it can be done. I would do a couple of practice pieces first after you do some reading up on your lathe and basic operations that it can handle. If you have any friends who work in a machine shop ask them for advice as well and see if they will come and show you what to do. (you will probably have to use a taper attachment , or offset the tailstock or use the compound slide if it has enough travel length ). Hope this helps Chuck. :)
 
#3 ·
Hi Halcion,
I am not sure if you have know have more understanding of your lathe and its capabilities, The normal way to create a taper on a lathe is as follows.

On your cross feed assembly there is two hand wheels one that moves the tool post and tool towards the chuck as if you were machining the surface of the the length of a bar held in the chuck and the other hand wheel moves the tool across the face of the material ie from outer to the centre of the chuck,

Know the tool post on most lathes is sat on a circular base plate that is held in position by two locking nuts on the outer face of the plate is a graduated degree scale and with the two lock nuts slackened of the tool post assembly can be rotated.

For normal lathe work it will be set at zero if you turn the tool post assembly to a 2degree position this would give you a long slight taper or if you set it at 10 degrees that will give you a steeper taper

Know wind the tool post away from the chuck to be able to obtain maximum tool travel
when you start to feed the tool along the length of your workpiece, I suggest you support the end of your material in your chuck with a rotating center support unit fitted into the tailstock you will require this to stop any deflection of your material while you are machining the work piece.

I would suggest you set the tool post at around 2 degrees feed the tool into the material at the tail stock end and turn the hand wheel on the crossfeed assembly to take the cut towards the chuck, If you take a 1 mm deep cut at the tailstock end and rotate the hand wheel to take the cut the tool will come out of the work at aproxx 75mm of cut what you are doing is producing a taper cut ,

Your problem is the you can only acheive with this method the lengh of cut or taper by the length of distance you can moove the tool towards the chuck Before you start measure the distance of travel you have from Left to Right and that will be you taper length,

I hope this is of some help,

Regards.........Dick Turpin
 
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