Lathe Tailstock Quick Lock

[Crusty]

I've used a combo wrench for a couple of years now but I gotta tell you this is a big improvement. Since I routinely use a center in the tailstock to set my cutting tool height I move the TS in and out a lot and this is much faster for that.

Sit down with a pencil and paper and make a conceptual sketch to see how it operates and the approximate dimensions. I think in my version the distance between the trunnions center and the clamping bolt center is of the order of around 3/8" and the bolt head cams exert maximum force within that span. The rounding which occurs last is used to fine tune the operation and since you're reducing the apex of the cam it fine tunes the clamping in conjunction with adjustment of the clamp bolt to set the clamping force (just enough to solidly hold the tailstock).

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