Do you have trouble turning to a shoulder? Do you long for an easy way of repeating where you stop the carriage?

If you answered yes to either one of these, you could need a carriage stop.

Here is what mine looks like.

This was made from a block of aluminium which is 51×26.3x22mm

To machine the contour of the lathe Vee, I mounted the stock in a vice at an angle.

I also made:

A Clamp plate.

This is the locking screw, for the adjustable stop, it is made from stainless steel, and is threaded M5

This is the adjustable stop, it is made from some sort of steel, and measures 74mm in length, the thick bit is 17.5×7.8 and the remainder is 6.8mm in diameter.

On the bottom of the clamp is two nubs that act as a lever for the clamping plate, they measure 4mm in diameter and protrude by 3mm. These were made by drilling two 3x4mm holes, and then gluing two 4x6mm aluminium dowels in.

Lets talk about the main body, on the top side it has two countersunk holes, for two M6 screws. it doesn’t matter where these go really however I shall, draw a proper plan for them.The larger hole is 10mm and the smaller is a clearance hole 7mm.

On the side of the stop is a hole, 7mm in diameter to take the adjustable stop.

On the back of the stop there is a hole, tapped m5 to take the adjustable stop screw.

There is a bit of extra space, if you wanted to put a micrometer, or make a multiple stop disk. That shouldn’t be too hard.

Thanks for reading.

By Gareth Bellringer About the Author

To leave a comment join the forum discussion on this post

The problem.

The solution.

Here we see the tailstock as a whole:

Finished camlock.

So I started by machining a new clamp plate, this measures 42.00mm by 25.4mm. It is 5.7mm thick. The grooves come in 8.5mm from each edge and are 2 mm deep. The hole is 10mm in diameter and is 15 mm from the right hand edge and 13.5 mm from the front edge (closest to the camera in this picture)

The clamp plate.

Next I machined a clamp bolt from 10mm steel bar (of unknown grade) which was threaded on both ends using an M8 die. The bolt is 56.3mm in length, the larger threaded portion is 12.2mm to the shoulder, the smaller threaded portion is 9.2mm to the shoulder. Then I attached a bolt on the end, and put it in the lathe to shorten the length of the nut so that it would clear the bed.

The clamp bolt.

Next I made a cam receiver, it was made from 12.7mm hex stock, centerdrilled then drilled to 6.8mm, then tapped M8, once this was done, it was cross drilled 8mm.

The receiver is 17.6mm in length. The cross drilled hole is halfway along the length.

The Receiver

After these were done, I made the cam. This was done by offsetting the work in the four jaw chuck. This would be easier to do on an individual four jaw, but I don’t have one, I only have a self centering so I offset it by putting some packing material in. The cam was made from 10mm steel (unknown grade) and is 47.2mm in length. The offset portion is 13mm long and 7.8mm in diameter.

Turning the cam.

I did this at quite a slow speed, because I was worried about the work coming out. I wasn’t sure how secure it was. Either way it turned out well.

Finished cam with handle attached.

The cam was pressed into a bit of steel that had been drilled to the same size as the cam, then cross drilled to accommodate the handle.

Here is an overview of the parts

The only thing missing from the image above is a spring that is used to keep the clamp plate away from the ways when it is unlocked.

In Use:

Here the tailstock is unlocked.

Here it is locked.

Note the nice knob on the end of the handle, this was made using my ball turning attachment. I haven’t shown the handle because the dimensions aren’t critical.

To conclude:

This has been a very worthwhile project, saving me lots of time and frustration. If I was to make it again I would make the part of the cam that goes into the receiver slightly longer, so that I could put a circlip on it so that it wouldn’t come out.

Although this is for the Clarke Lathe, I’m sure that you would be able to modify it for your machine. As promised, here are the plans:

Thanks for reading.

By Gareth Bellringer About the Author

To leave a comment join the forum discussion on this post

1. Introduction
2. Material Selection
3. Outside turning
4. Boring
5. Threading
6. Spanner Slots
7. Finish Work
8. Conclusion

1.) Introduction

One of the main reasons I purchased my Grizzly 10×22 lathe was to assist in the project to convert my milling machine to CNC control and it has worked out fantastically for that purpose.  I have made many parts already using it and performed follow-up work on it from milled parts as well.  However when it came time to work on the long, slender, ball screws needed for the X and Z axis it became clear that I needed a little rear support.  My first attempt at cutting the Z axis screw ends resulted in a wobbling screw in part due to the rear of that long screw whipping around behind the lathe I believe.

Before I made any more attempts at taking on long shafts I wanted a way to really dial them in to the lathe rotation axis.  A rear spider is used by many gunsmiths to do just this but they are often either bulky or installed on the work and butted against the spindle meaning that moving the work involves also moving the spider.  I started thinking about what I wanted to do and how I wanted mine to work.

My design goals were:

• I wanted it to be attached, something that was just an extension of the lathe.
• As short as possible.  I wanted it to be able to grab any bar that could reach the rear of the spindle bore and to not protrude much from the rear cover.
• The rear cover needed to be able to be opened and closed with the spider in place but not in use.
• I wanted a decent appearance, something that looked like it belonged there.

I settled on a design that would replace one of the spanner nuts on the rear spindle of the lathe and provide a short extension of the spindle to add the 4 set screws used in the spider.  The extension would be just a bit over ½” with a heavy chamfer to make it less obtrusive and keep the rear cover from contacting it when opened and closed.  I proceeded to take a few measurements to get started on the 3D model.

Original spindle spanner nuts

I determined that the thread used on the rear spindle was M39-1.5 which is not what is listed in the parts diagram or the replacement parts site on Grizzly.  I have no idea if that is due to changes over time or just a misprint so you may want to confirm that against your own spindle before cutting any threads or finishing the boring work.

The inside bore of the lathe is just a tad over 1 inch so I went with 1.060” for the bore of my spider to match that and go a little over it.  The hole in the rear cover was around 2 inches wide but poorly centered on the spindle.  You can adjust it to some extent but it would not center well on my lathe so I decided on the outside diameter of the spider portion of the part being 1.750” to give plenty of clearance for both opening the door and so it doesn’t rub on the off-center hole.

The O.D. of the nut section of the part was chosen to be the same as the existing nut at around 2.230”.  Not much of this is critical so it can be altered to suit the user or material at hand.

2.) Material Selection

There is not a lot to say here really.  I wanted the nut to be durable and hold up to being yanked around with a spanner wrench and getting smacked now and again by hard metals.   What I had on hand was a hunk of 2.5” diameter  1144 steel that I had snagged from the scrap bin.  It also happened to be short enough to not need to be cut down much to get to final dimensions.   I think AL could be used but durability would suffer while ease of machining would increase.  Also if you could find a 2.5” tube with a 0.750” wall thickness you could cut down a lot of time spent boring but the cost would likely be high for the material.

3.) Outside Turning

This is pretty straight forward.  Since perfect concentricity is not required I simply used the 3 jaw for all the operations.  First I faced each side of the stock to clean up the rough ends.  The Spider-Nut needs two external diameters cut; the 2.230” external diameter of the nut section and the 1.750” section for the spider section.  The total length of the part is 1.180”.  In my case the raw stock was short enough that I could not cut both ODs at the same time.  If you use a longer piece of stock then consideration will need to be given to cutting away the excess, as 2.25 to 2.5” of steel is no simple thing to part off and facing off inches of material is also not fun.

I used standard carbide tools to turn the majority of the stock away.  750RPM to 1200RPM and 0.050” DOC with a heavy feed was showering the area in nice blue chips.  Then when it was time to get a nice smooth finish I switched to the CCGT inserts normally used in aluminum but they also do very nice work with small DOC in steel.  They are sharp enough to remove small amounts of material where normal molded inserts will only rub and make a mess.  1200RPM, 0.005” DOC and low feed provided a nice finish.

Then I faced each end down to the proper length but on my part I left the spider section about 0.500” long for now so I had some extra to grab onto for boring and threading work.

4.)  Boring

Since I began with solid round stock there was a LOT of material to remove for this step.  I began with drilling a center in the back of the stock (the nut side) and then used progressive drills to step up through the sizes from 3/16” on up to 5/8”.  I stepped up by roughly 1/8” with each drill but I have found the 5/8” drill cuts better going from 3/8” than it does from 1/2” so in that case I stepped up by 1/4″.

With the starter hole punched through I could use my 1/2” boring bar for my best chance at boring the hole without chatter.   The 1.680” length of the bore would be right at 3.4X extension on the boring bar which is approaching the limit on a 1/2” steel boring bar and my carbide inserts do not make things better at long extensions for chatter.  Still I like to use them where possible because removing a lot of metal with HSS on a steel part is like watching paint dry.

I used 1200RPM and 0.020” DOC and an aggressive feed on the rough boring work.  Since the through bore was not critical I simply used the roughing insert all the way through.  As the hole opened up the finish improved a bit but I had to step down to 720RPM near the end to quell some chatter.  Once the through bore ID reached 1.060” I stopped and reset for the next operation.

Next step was to bore the hole for what would soon be the threaded nut side.  The minor diameter I came up with by measuring the inside of one of the stock spanner nuts was 1.480” or about 37.6mm.  I stayed on the loose side as it was more important that it fit easily than perfectly snug.  It’s a jam nut not a rocket nozzle.  This is a much shorter boring job so I adjusted the boring bar to just 0.700” of overhang and using a magnetic dial indicator against the carriage I measured out the 0.680” bore depth from the face of the part and set my carriage stop for that position.  I could rough using the carbide inserts much more aggressively now.

After roughing out the majority of the bore I switched to my AR Warner HSS inserts for my boring bar and slowed the spindle way down into the low hundreds.  These sharp HSS inserts will take smaller cuts and leave a nicer finish behind but they are remarkably slow to use.  I cut by 0.005” plus a spring-pass till I reached my target diameter on the nose.

5.)  Threading

Lathe threading is a topic covered all over the web in great detail.  I am not going to completely cover that topic here but there are a few gotcha’s if you have not done an internal thread nor threaded on the Grizzly 10×22 before.  If this is the first time you have threaded, stop here.  You need to practice it a bit with setups where it is harder to crash.  A flub here wastes a lot of time spent up to now.

Compound setup for internal threading

Since this is a metric thread you need to be aware that you cannot use the thread dial to engage and disengage the half-nuts.  They MUST remain closed through the entire threading operation.  This means that you will have to run the lathe in reverse to back the tool up out of the bore for the next pass.  As this is an internal bore, the compound position will need to be the mirror image of the normal position, being swung either 29° to the left-front or 29° to the right rear (see picture above).  The position on the compound angle dial will not be 29° either.  The 10×22 has its zero angle mark set where the compound is parallel to the axis of the spindle instead of perpendicular like most lathes.  Instead on the 10×22 you set the compound to 61° (90° – 29°).  Clear as mud right?

To do this job you need a 60° thread cutting tool of some kind that can thread inside a bore.

A carbide lay-down thread tool.

That tool must be sharply pointed enough to cut the root of the thread to the right depth before it cuts the sides of the thread too wide.  You need a tool made for this or you need to grind one that will work which is a subject all to itself.  I went with a carbide insert tool with a lay-down configuration.  It looks a lot like a boring bar, but with a bit different geometry.  An insert tool means I can do more work on projects and less work grinding tools.

Before I began, I made a copy of the spindle’s rear thread on some stock I had laying around.  I cut the thread so that the rear spanner nut from the machine would thread on freely to male thread I was making.  This would then give me a gauge to use when cutting the female threads for the nut and should mean that if this gauge threads in that the spider-nut would certainly thread onto the rear of the spindle.  Time well spent; because if you remove the work from the chuck you are in a world of hurt trying to pick up the thread again if it does not fit.  It may still be prudent to mark the chuck jaw and part together so it can be replaced in the chuck in the same position if need be.

Copy of rear spindle thread with spanner nut threaded onto it

Before you begin to cut your thread use the tool to make a relief groove at the back of the bore.  This is a shallow groove about 0.050” deep and perhaps 0.100” wide at the back of the bore for the threads.  This allows the tool to clear from the material at the end of each threading pass. So you don’t have the tool running into a mound of burr at the end of the thread.

Setup a reference of some kind to show you where the end of the bore is so you don’t crash the tool trying to eyeball it.  You can use tape, dye, or something else.  I use my carriage stop for this but you still have to turn off the spindle at the right moment to allow it to coast up to the stop since it will not stop the power feed if the spindle is running.  Now, find your cross-slide zero by just scratching the inside of the bore.  Finally with the spindle off pick up a number you want to use on the thread dial and engage the half-nuts at that position.  I chose position ‘1’. (remember you must not disengage them again till the thread is finished)

For each pass I followed the below procedure:

1. Set cross slide to your zero position.
2. Dial the desired depth of cut for this pass on the compound.
3. Turn the spindle on forward and make the pass.
4. 1/8” or better from your reference mark turn the spindle off.
5. Turn the spindle by hand all the way up to the mark if needed.
6. Push the cross-slide forward by 0.045” to 0.055” and
7. Turn the spindle on in reverse till you are clear of the bore.
8. Stop the spindle.
9. Back to step 1.

I continued that process until I had cut in by 0.041” of compound in-feed (Use that as a guide, your mileage may vary depending on the tool you are using). At this point the thread gauge I had made would just thread on.  I gave it an extra 0.001” of compound feed and that made for a nice snug but free spinning fit.  Threading was now complete.

6.) Spanner Slots and Screw Holes

The next step is to add the spanner slots in the outer body of the spider nut.  There are multiple ways to do this that depend on the equipment you have at hand.  The position is not critical so by-eye alignment is fine but too much slop and it would start to look bad.  I happened to have a shop-made indexer I made for just these kinds of needs.  I loaded the Spider-Nut into the indexer’s chuck and set up the indexer to allow me to stop at 90° positions and locked the indexer into my mill’s vice.

An indexing head and mill will be most helpful. This is a shop-made unit.

After centering the part on my Y axis, I used a 0.250” solid carbide end mill at 3000 RPM and 0.020” DOC and 10 IPM to make the slots in the X axis direction.  I cut to a final depth of 0.125” for each slot.  Once complete I reset the Z axis and indexed the part another 90 degrees and repeated this process.  Lock your indexer down well when cutting.  This is steel and the cutting forces can get pretty high.  My failure to lock it down well enough cost me an end mill and left some decorative knurling around the rear of the Spider-Nut.

The slots could also be done with a shaper, or a broach of some kind.  The main thing is you want the slots to allow for tightening and removing the nut with a spanner wrench just like the existing jam nuts on the lathe.  A mill and indexer are but one way to skin this cat.  Once finished cutting I used a file to clean up the edges and knock down the sharp corners.

Next I drilled and tapped my holes for the spider screws using the same index positions as the slots.  I had positioned the part such that I could drill between the jaws of the indexer’s 4 jaw chuck at each index position.  Before I drilled I plunged a 3/16” end mill a few thousandths to cut a small flat into the outside of the part to give the tap-drill a place to start without wandering too badly.  I tapped using my mill and a spiral-point 1/4-20 HSS tap.  I tapped using power in low gear and at less than 100 RPM just letting the tap pull the quill down with it.

After that was complete I hit the inside of the bore with a round file to knock off the drilling burrs.  I also used a 90 degree counter sink to do the same for the outside of each hole around the part.

7.) Finish Work

Now it’s back to the lathe to put the finishing touches on the part.  This is mostly all cosmetic and can be adjusted to suit the taste of the person making it.  I loaded the part up and faced away the excess I left on the spider screw side of the Spider-Nut.  I left the length at 0.5” to allow for the 1/4-20 set screws and the heavy chamfer I planned for the spider side of the nut.

Next it’s time to rotate the compound to make the 45 degree chamfers.  I used 1/16” chamfers on the inside edges of the bores, flipping the part in the 3 jaw to get to both of them with the compound on the same setting.  I then reset the compound to do the 45 degree outside chamfers and did both sides of the spanner half of the part.  I now again flipped the part back around and re-chucked.  Last step was to cut the large 0.200” chamfer on the outside of the Spider half of the part.  Finally I used a little sand paper to clean up the appearance of the part.  The chamfers are all cosmetic so feel free to adjust those to your own taste.

Now I removed it from the chuck and threaded it onto the rear of the spindle to replace one of the spanner nuts.  It fit perfectly and extends only slightly from the rear of the G0602’s rear cover.  DO NOT OPERATE THE LATHE WITH THE REAR COVER CLOSED AND THE SPIDER SCREWS PROTRUDING FROM THE SPIDER-NUT!  Doing so may allow them to snag the cover while rotating and bad stuff is likely to result.  When using the Spider-Nut to support long work make sure the rear cover is open and propped out of the way.  When not in use, removing the screws completely would be prudent.

Finished Spider-Nut

Spider-Nut mounted

Spider Nut mounted and in use

Spider-Nut not used with cover closed

8.) Conclusion

This part fulfilled my goals for the project.  A rear spider that allowed me to support long limber work in the spindle that did not need be removed to operate the lathe normally nor be installed when needed with this design the spider is always ready to use when I need it and looks right at home on the lathe.  The rear cover is not interfered with when operating without the spider in use.  This not a difficult project but neither is it simple.  Without a mill and indexer a little ingenuity will be required to add the non-lathe features.

Here’s the link to the plans:

By Kyle Crane About the author

To leave a comment join the forum discussion on this post

Here’s what Glenn had to say about his Nib Holder:

“I recently made a Diamond Nib Holder for dressing the wheels on my new surface grinder. It’s a very simplistic design derived from the common off-the-shelf Nib holders that you see in MSC, Enco, etc. catalogs. Those, however, are typically castings or welded parts. (see last photo above). My version is fully machined, ground, and bolted together. I used A2 tool steel. The part is approximately 5″ long, 2″ wide, and 1-3/4″ tall. The base plate is 1/4″ thick. The top block is approximately 1-1/2″ square before machining the angle on it.

This tool is a good example of how one might use a 15 degree Angle Block to position the top of the Nib Holder for milling and drilling at the desired angle position for the diamond dresser.

I also used my new surface grinder (new to me, at least!) to put a nice finish on all of the surfaces of the tool.
-Glenn”

Thanks for sharing you plans Glenn!

To leave a comment join the forum discussion on this post

Vernon Peterson came up with a great idea when he decided to build a base for his Magnetic Drill. Personally I’ve always wanted a Mag Drill, but I’ve never had a project that required one so it was a hard purchase to sneak past the wife. But with Vernon’s base I could totally justify adding a Mag Drill to my shop because it would double as a second drill press!

Here’s a video of Vernon’s creation:

Vernon originally posted this project to the forum here, but I liked the project so much I felt it needed to be featured on the home page.

I hope it inspires those of you who own a mag drill to pull it out, dust it off, and turn it into a more frequently used tool in your shop.

You can download plans to make your own below.

To leave a comment join the forum discussion on this post

Here’s a video of the attachment in action.

And here are a few pics.

I know what some of you Atlas purists are thinking. “How could anything be better than a Marvin?!” Well, for one thing, it’s available. I’ve never seen a Marving on eBay or anywhere else for sale (although they do supposedly show up for sale occassionally). And I’ve heard that when Marvin milling attachments do show up for sale they cost a fortune. Unless you’re a collector the Marvin isn’t practical. John’s attachment is.

Got a better idea for a vertical milling attachment conversion for an Atlas (or similar) horizontal mill? Share it with us by visiting the forum and leaving a comment/pictures/etc. We’d love to see it!

To leave a comment join the forum discussion on this post

If you’re not a G0602 owner you can certainly adjust the size of this stop to fit your lathe’s dimensions.

A few additional pictures and a description of the machining process can be found on Kyle’s site.

Thanks for sharing Kyle!

To leave a comment join the forum discussion on this post

But as you can see from the pictures, it works just as well for smaller items.

If you decide to make your own please take a few pictures of the process and post them to the forum!

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

To leave a comment join the forum discussion on this post

It’s a simple project for making a set of clamps that fit an X2 Mini Mill (Sieg / Harbor Freight / Grizzly) and these clamps would make a great first project for anyone who owns an X2 or similar sized mill.

The original instructable can be found here. However, for those of you who don’t have an instructables.com account, I’ve provided a PDF copy of the project instructions as well as the drawing below. Doc also provides SLDDRW and SLDPRT files of the drawing in his instructable for those of you with CAD capabilities.

Thanks again for letting me share this with my readers Doc!

To leave a comment join the forum discussion on this post

If you’re a clockmaker (or have some other need for cutting precision gears) and you don’t want to spend $8K on a quality Burgeon, take a look at Michel’s detailed plans. FYI, the plans are in French (for example, the index plate pin is called a “pointeau”), but that shouldn’t prevent anyone from being able to read the dimensions (which are metric).

“This is milling machine for clockmaking that I designed for use with a Dremel. This machine is based on a milling machine from the Bergeon company. The goal was not to duplicate the Bergeon design exactly, but rather to alter the design to allow for the use of a Dremel. A lightweight Dremel is easy to mount thus avoiding the need for a larger motor and pulley (like in the Burgeon design). On my site you will find photographs as well as the method of construction.

Also on my site there are other projects which might be of interest to your visitors: A quick change tool post that I designed which has proved to be very handy, as well as a stainless marking gauge, which was a very beautiful project to create.

-  Michel”

To leave a comment join the forum discussion on this post