Making good quality Morse tapers at home.

[The Metal Butcher]

I know this is home shop central.
I get it.
But I really hate polishing a taper for size and fit on a lathe.
And grit on a lathe drives me nuts.
So I bought a universal tool cutter grinder.
Then I bought a cylindrical grinder.
Then I bought an ID grinder.
Grinding just makes it easier to do high precision work.
It was a no brainer to make a cylindrical grinder the next
purchase after getting a surface grinder. Then making
your own tooling tapers for the mill and the lathe becomes
easy. Think of all the money in tooling you cheapskates will
save if you just buy a cylindrical grinder ! ? ! You could grind
rusty rebar into a lathe center ! Then post a pic here.
You guys are missing the boat. Then heat treat it and quench
it in camel snot. Home quench recipe, don't cha know ?

-D

Right. But there are a few counterarguments. In general, I agree.

1. Abrasive is harder to get help for. A million hobbiests with lathes, but less with grinders. Less advice for finish, wheel selection, feeds and speeds, etc.
2. I see 100 lathes for sale for every cylindrical grinder.
3. Most the ones I see for sale are giant, 12' TOS monsters. I do want one. But they're also like $3k and not really necessary for my work right now.
4. I know what I like in a lathe. Long carriage wings, full length X-slide, full gearhead, enclosed QCGB, carriage reverse, overhung tailstock, ways extending past the headstock, individual feed clutches, reversing motor clutch, etc. I know exactly what I want. If Build-A-Bear took over Monarch (and I was rich), I think I could dump $200k pretty easily and walk out with a true Rolls Royce. Cylindrical grinder? No clue. I can only guess. Someday? Yea man. But I got a lot of other stuff to buy first. For now my lathe will have to suffer a bit of grit I guess.

That ain't just a Doozer rant. It's good sense.

A grinder is on my list, cylindrical grinder. Already have a somewhat cobbled together T&C. Even with that, which can function as a cylindrical grinder, many things are easier and work better.

When you really want a grinder finish, it's darn hard to beat....... wait for it.........a real grinder.

Yah I did do some stuff with a TPG, and it worked out really well too. About as well as using a T&C grinder. But it gravels me to get grit all over the lathe. I know it's not as bad as it seems if covered decently, but still. I scraped parts of that lathe, and I hate the idea.

Incredible to me knowing that the Nardini at work has had 100s of lbs of abrasive grit probably in it's lifetime, yet the ways are barely scratched. Must be hard as diamond. My Daewoo definitely saw some wear from it though.

Funny, I have a small home shop size cylindrical grinder that I have been trying to sell for
I think 2 years over on PM and no one wants it. Sometimes I think I am the only person
who actually loves machining.

It's a project though right? See again, I'd have a lot of trouble evaluating condition on something like that. And if I'm going to a grinder, then that means my best lathe isn't up to snuff. And then that means I'll need at least a decent grinder. A clapped out grinder isn't going to solve my issues. (Not saying yours is.)

But considering hiring out the
work you don't have the tools for. Maybe rough out some Morse taper shank toolholders on
your lathe, send them out for hardening, and then send them to a shop to be ground.
Why not? Do what you can do and send it to a specialist for the rest. Lots of guys work on their
cars. But most take their car to the alignment shop to get the front end dialed in. Same thing right ?
It is smarter to hire out the work you don't have capacity for, rather than bodge it to just get it done.
That way you don't surround yourself with second-rate stuff that is only going to frustrate you when
you try to use it. Sloppy, ill-fitting tooling is no joy. Figure out what path is right for you and keep
moving forward. There is no shame to say you lathe is not capable of turning a repeatable and
accurate taper. It is the smarter man who sees when to modify his quest and seek out a higher path.

Absolutely.

Actually.

I think I may agree with JR's barter system here. It would be pretty cool to trade favors with the forum members, pure barter. For example, I suck at fussy work. Making stuff like way wipers or small internal parts. Gears, worms, hardened stuff, making insert holders, watchmaker like work, that's not up my alley. Even if I can do it, it won't be great and it will take me too long to be practical. But if someone needs 100lbs of stock removed in an hour, yeah, I can do that. 8" 2TPI thread, sure.

But then again I tend to think up projects in my capabilities. Maybe you don't and I applaud you for that. But I suspect most of us do.

Ok you have all the high tech ways to make one, now heres the Low tech way. You can find it on Ebay.

I'd actually like that. I dislike T/As as most are leadscrew-pushers, which naturally tend towards indeterminate position due to backlash and tool-pressure. So then you've got to cut HS to TS big to little. With that do-jobber, no issues. No need for a T/A. But it won't do a 29" shaft like the last taper I made. Also, that made me realize what a radius center is for.