Easy setup for MT2 morse taper making

[Christophe Mineau]

Hi,
Here is my low tech method for turning an MT2 morse taper with the compound slide.
I setup the angle of my compound slide just by pressing on its side a ruler, and eye balling, looking vertically, the line drawn on a template paper.
The paper is drawn with the CAD software, it shows the axis, which is carefully aligned with the edge of one of the ways of the lathe. The drawing shows in red the half angle of the taper, which needs to be exactly aligned with the above ruler, so with the the compound slide.

Here are some pictures :

The template is hold down with a magnet.


Looking down vertically, the ruler must be aligned with the red line.


Using my plane adjusting hammer to gently tap the slide for fine tuning.


It can be used also for checking the angle of a test piece.

[Christophe Mineau]

Forgot to attach the drawing, if possibly someone wanted to try :
MT2 half angle.pdf

[DIYer]

Thanks Christophe Mineau! We've added your Morse Taper Making Setup to our Measuring and Marking category,
as well as to your builder page: Christophe Mineau's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Morse Taper Making Setup by Christophe Mineau

tags: magnet, scale, taper

[Captainleeward]

Nice L@@KING Lathe you got there....:O)

[Christophe Mineau]

Nice L@@KING Lathe you got there....:O)

Thanks Captain !
It's quite a standard Asian made one, but I like it.
I chose it because it had a T slot table, I like it to attach a milling square with vertical slide, and it has a transverse automatic feed which is not on all models.
But my first criterion was the long bed, in order to be able to perform deep drilling.
The main drawback is for me the difficulty for fine adjusting the play in the dovetails, always too much slack, or too tight ...
If someone has an idea for improving that ...

Looking forward to see your next posts, Captain ! (by the way I liked the square box, missed to tell you that)

[Captainleeward]

Well Thanks Chris for the kind words. What is the size of your lathe ? I remember my first attempt at a morse taper but i finally got right I like your explanation of the way to do it. I had the same trouble with my cross slide moving so I put more fine threaded screws on the bottom of the crosslide to keep the bar from moving underneath. Where have you been you have a lot of projects to make to over take me? HA HA Do you play guitar as well?

[metric_taper]

The main drawback is for me the difficulty for fine adjusting the play in the dovetails, always too much slack, or too tight ...
If someone has an idea for improving that ...

I've seen several internet links to fixing import lathe compound and cross slide fits. They involve using lapping compound, with the feed screws removed, and hand sliding while slowly adjusting the gib.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6GIqhXcTh8

If you follow the link to the CNZZONE there is much controversy with doing this. One post say's all this will do is increase clearance and permanently damage the ways.

I'm more interested in if silicon carbide grit will permanently embed into the cast iron, or if this is not an issue. If this were true, then even a soft brass/copper lap would leave grit in the work.

[C-Bag]

I had very good luck scraping the surface of the cross slide and the gib on my 9x20. Took it from being almost impossible to adjust properly to working smoothly and vastly cut down on chatter. Scraping is rather time consuming but became kinda addictive with time and with better and quicker results. Also came in handy fixing the head on my shaper too. There is also no imbedded abrasives left over.

[metric_taper]

I had very good luck scraping the surface of the cross slide and the gib on my 9x20. Took it from being almost impossible to adjust properly to working smoothly and vastly cut down on chatter. Scraping is rather time consuming but became kinda addictive with time and with better and quicker results. Also came in handy fixing the head on my shaper too. There is also no imbedded abrasives left over.

This is where the controversy goes, if your willing to lap, then why not scrape. It turns pretty nasty, and 140 posts later, I think they are still arguing.
I have no plans to do this. But my cross slide does not run perpendicular to the spindle, and lapping can't fix that. Scrapping may, but with investment in accurate straight edge, square, and schooling on scrapping, and measuring what to scrape, and how much to correct. I can live with it on my 16x40.

So here's a link in case someone wants to do much reading. I made it to post 16. Looks like from there scraping is the discussion.
Way lapping, Scraping, Gib adjustment and Lock screws

[Hemi]

Seeing this reminds me. I have 2 of the Edellstaal Unimats. both of which are GREAT machines, one I have set up as the Mill and the other set up as the Lathe... I know you can "tilt" or canter the headstock of the lathe for taper turning, BUT I WISHED I had a tool post angled like a regular lathe, does for such, that way I could keep the auto feed attachment engauged at most times... Without having to "re-center" the headstock for straight turning, on it....