Homemade tools made with Harbor Freight tools

[Frank S]

While I quite agree that any lathe worth its salt would have a device incorporated in the mechanics which drive the lead screw to prevent the total or preferably even partial destruction of any components of the machine. Shear pins as such really should be tapered. I prefer in most cases when making a new taper pin to use relatively soft metals I also like to make the pins long enough to add a thread on the small end so I can use a nut to tighten the pin in the taper, thus yielding a positive tight connection for the shaft involved.
However this only addresses half of the problem since long before any such installed device could shear even should the pin in wuestion be made out of tempered glass a lot of damage would have already occurred like deep gouges in the chuck or jaws or work piece the cutting tool would either be destroyed or at the very least severely dulled or have the tip broke off possibly embedding in the lens of your safety glasses, reminding you why you wear them in the first place.
Looking at the carriage Apron of the lathe in question I see that the half nut engagement lever appears to rotate up and down in the same plane as the apron in moving, therefore as I see it a mount needs to be made to hold a sliding disengagement shaft , Some sort of tab may have to be installed between the leaver and the apron for the rod to strike and this may have to be made to fit in the 12 or 6 o;clock position on the other end of the disengagement shaft should be adjustable this way the stop could be used to halt the movement of the X axis at very nearly any position.
to Further enhance the beauty of the re-engineering of this little lathe would be a 3,4 ,5 or even 6 indexed position rotary cylinder with adjustable stops of different lengths. These would allow for a multi stop setting for repeatable turning,
I would require a close up pic of the apron with some dimensions if possible to draw up a rudimentary design for such a device
However after reading your posts I am pretty sure that you can figure out one for yourself given a little nudge in that direction.
U really admire using a Cleveland style slide on your cross slide that is top drawer thinking

[Frank S]

Sorry should have read post #28 before replying