I'm now the new world class expert

[Forrest Addy]

I'm now the new world class expert on lathe spindle noses.

What makes me an expert is I spent the money and got USAS B5.9 (1967 r2004). It was a simple matter of a download from the website. I have all the information on the A1 and A2 (there is a difference) D1, L series etc and all the details and little standardized parts, cams, cam lock studs, detents, ring nuts, keys, locating disks, and all the other details.

For instance there is a 2" size A1 spindle nose and there is a 28" size A1 spindle nose with 3 4 5 6 8 11 15 20in between. See, I got it in a PDF file from the standards outfit and now I got it on paper. Everything - and it's from a standard which is de facto law in the technical world. That's what makes me an expert. For a zillion years whenever I had to rassle with a spindle or fit an item of spindle tooling I've been frustrated, handicapped, stabbing in the dark, sweating whether a detail I'm working with will turn the machine into a white elephant because I changed something that was standardized or something non-standard. Now I have it on paper. If I'm in doubt I can get out the standard to verify the rightness of my actions.

The whole idea of standards is so the many things we make and use interchange to the maximum extent possible. A chuck made in Poland or Connecticut will fit a spindle made in Cincinnatti, Edo, Shanghai or - Mars. Same with bearings, bolts, materials, etc.

So thanks to a $35 charge on my card I'm as expert on spindle noses and abutting features as 44 pages of ASA B5.89 drawings and text can make me.

From this new experience I'm inspired to encourage all of you to maintain a library of technical information starting with "How to Run a Lathe" "A Treatice on the Milling Machine" and similar how to's. And how could a home shop ever get along without "Machinery's Handbook" or some other compendium of standards and narrative related to the machinist trade. Also handbooks and trade school texts for welder, millwright, engineer, etc wherever your curiosity takes you. If you are not adding a foot or so the the length of books and looseleafs, catalogs etc on your shop bookshelf every year you're not really trying. Well, maybe that's an over-statement but to adapt a saying: if you think information is wasteful and expensive try ignorance.

[Dr Stan]

Amen.

I have a 3 1/2' X 7' bookshelf in my shop that is almost full. Everything from SB's How to Run a Lathe, to Machinery's to the American Machinist Handbook to a treatise on planners to Audel's machining and millwright books to die design to a four volume set on "Unusual Mechanical Devices" and so on. There's absolutely no way I can attempt to know or remember everything about metal working and mechanics.

There is a lot of info available on the Net, but there is still value in having printed material.

[JoeFin]

It's not what you know - but can you access and assimilate the information.

at least thats what they tell me

[Mcostello]

Does it list my SB 2 3/8" X 6 Tpi?

[1-800miner]

A smart man does not know all the answers.
He just knows where to get them.

[doctor demo]

standards is so the many things we make and use interchange to the maximum extent possible. A chuck made in Poland or Connecticut will fit a spindle made in Cincinnatti, Edo, Shanghai or - Mars.

So thanks to a $35 charge on my card I'm as expert on spindlles noses and abutting features as 44 pages of ASA B5.89 drawings and text can make me.

Sounds like You were ripped off!
You made no mention of what types of billet the parts can be made of

Steve

[NzOldun]

A smart man does not know all the answers.
He just knows where to get them.

And what to do with them, when he finds them!!

[Bill736]

I have no doubt that Forrest now has copious information on spindle noses, and that can indeed be hard to obtain information. While I am familiar with the 2 3/8 x 6 TPI spindle nose on certain early South Bends, as mentioned by Mcostello, my circa 1916 Canedy-Otto 16 inch lathe has a 2 3/8 x 8 TPI spindle nose. I've found few accessories available , save for one face plate , and a fellow in Alaska who has the same lathe. Oddly, most of the major components on the Canedy-Otto appear to have been made by South Bend, but Canedy-Otto chose to use their own spindle nose thread.

[Black_Moons]

Mmm, Spindle grade billet. :P

[gcude]

Does it list my SB 2 3/8" X 6 Tpi?

I'm also quizzing about the SB 2 3/8" x 6 Tpi on my 14 1/2.

You did say you're the expert now.