Lathe tailstock quill extension index

[Christophe Mineau]

Here is a little gizmo I quickly made to provide a reading index and zero setup for the tailstocks of my lathes.

I know I could have made a DRO for the tailstock, with a digital caliper for instance, but both of my tailstock quills, metal lathe and wood lathe, have a graduation, so I wanted to take benefit from them, and wanted also a zero setup .

I came up with this simple solution, mounted on a rare earth magnet, featuring a little shaft ended with a brass needle. I just need to move the magnet so that the needle is in front of the zero to control the depth of my drilling.

Here it is on the metal lathe :




And here , the same on the wood lathe :



Bottom view :



It can even be used to index the chuck angle !