Taper set-over project

[sidegrinder]

Okay, here's a couple of pics of a little project I did a while back. I recently cleaned up the surfaces on my "new to me" bandsaw. Hopefully the peanut gallery will approve For anyone unfamiliar, you can use an item such as this to turn tapers between centers. It prevents having to set over the tailstock itself and whatever angst reseting it may bring. I did cheat on this by using premade mt-3/4 arbors I had laying around. I cut a ball center on the mt-4 arbor to be used on the headstock, I still need to change the other end to a ball center though. The bubble level helps get it set up the same each time--I've never seen it move once the taper was set into the tailstock, but I take pretty light cuts with it anyway. This has been nice for making mt tooling and I really enjoyed making it. I realize I could probably use my boring head to accoplish the same results, but it was just more fun this way! Sidegrinder.

[R W]

Congratulations on the simple design and the idea of using a level. I believe
your design could be fabricated if need be, by HM that do not have access
to a milling machine.

[BobWarfield]

Sidegrinder, that's very cool!

I had read about doing this, and seen one fellow that used a modified boring head for the purpose, but yours is unique and nicely made. Thanks so much for sharing with us.

Perhaps you can think of a way to lock in some of the important tapers you do relatively often. Could be as simple as setting them up once and figuring what thickness gage block fits between the fine adjustment and the sliding plate assembly. Write that down and you can turn that taper any time you want.

Well Done,

BW

[rsr911]

I've seen the modified boring head idea myself, I like both ideas but I have a question. Why not use a tanged morse shank to positively locate the taper head and prevent rotation? I've got an MT5 with a tang here that I've been saving for a similar setup.

[JCHannum]

That is a nice job. The level adds a touch of class.

The only drawback to these fixtures is that the length of the workpiece between the two centers must be carefully calculated and the math done to calculate the amount of setover required.

Even after that has been done, you still may have to fiddle a bit to get the taper exact. That is not a big deal, and is not meant to detract from them. I have both boring head and conventional taper attachments, and use the boring head more often because it is easier and quicker to set up.

The only reason I mention this is that it is why tapers cannot be preset and returned to when going from one job to another.

[Your Old Dog]

Neat setup! Spent the night going thru pics of taper attachments to try my hand at making one. This post comes at a good time. The only taper I will likely ever need is mt4 so your answer is a good one for me!

As to index yours "once" you've found the correct taper, simply take a razor sharp chisel and make a few witness marks across the two slides at the same time and punch them "mt4". Should make it quite simple to repeat without use of notes or mic measurements.

thanks for the post.

Ray............

ps. fyi to others! I'm past the damn threading thing and built an arbor for saw blade to use in the mill so I could build the expandable plug to fit in the other end of the headstock so I can thread slower by hand power. (think that might have been an Evan suggestion) Taper tool is next! Thanks for all our help on the thread issue. Pics to follow once my site is up again.

[ulav8r]

As posted by JC, indexing marks won't work unless distance between centers is the same on all workpieces.

[gzig5]

Sidegrinder,
Well Done! Your use of the level has answered one question I have had about getting a proper setup. I would imagine that once you have it properly leveled, a distance/gage block could be made to set the device level to a flat way on the bed.

One question. Do you have a specific reason for not using a ball end on the offset device like you did for the headstock center?

Greg

[sidegrinder]

The reason for no ball end on the set-over end is simply because I haven't made one yet (Need to find that rountoit) I have always used it with plain old 60 degree dead centers and really haven't noticed any unusual binding or tracking problems on the workpiece, but I am making relatively shallow morse tapers. I found out after I had built this setup that ball centers are actually the best for offset operations--probably all the more so with steeper tapers.

[Your Old Dog]

Originally Posted by ulav8r

As posted by JC, indexing marks won't work unless distance between centers is the same on all workpieces.

Is that right? I thought a morse taper was simply so much set over per foot. If the piece were 2" long or 30 feet long it would still have the "same setover per foot".

I'm a rookie here so lots of room for error but I'd like someone to set me straight on this because I just started building one today.

ray.........