Mini Lathe Lever Locking Tailstock Upgrade

G'day,
As a lot of you will know, I speak very highly of these little mini lathes. For the price and size, they can really punch above their weight. One thing I have been meaning to upgrade for a very long time is the tailstock locking mechanism. This does not apply to all mini lathes, but it seems to be very common for sieg branded models to have a nut locking design on the tailstock, rather than an eccentric locking lever. The nut can be very difficult to reach due to the limited space on the lathe and the time spent undoing it can really add up if you are doing a job where you need to make frequent use of the tailstock.
Today I will be upgrading the tailstock to have a lever locking system/lever lock. I will be making use of my mini lathe, and my new mini vertical mill. I will also be replacing the locking plate and stud.
Cheers
Lathe: Sieg c3 7x14 mini metal lathe
Lathe 2: Sherline 4410 CNC
Vertical Mill: Sieg x2.7l
CAD: Solidworks 2018
#machining #diy #lathe

[@ChrisHarmon1]

I glue sandpaper to a $40 granite block then flattened my cross slide, compound etc. Once flat I glued sandpaper to the bottom of the cross slide, compound etc and put them back on with "semi" tensioned gibs and proceeded to work them back and forth. My cross slide went from impossible to adjust without being sloppy somewhere in the travel to set and forget.

[@shannonsmith88]

Someone get this man a bandsaw! That hacksaws been in nearly every video..

[@ChrisHarmon1]

Just about to post "Someone get this man a bandsaw" but you beat me by 5 hours.

[@bustednuckles2]

Seriously, this man needs a band saw or a power hack saw. Even if it's a Harbor Freight portable power band saw on sale for $99. You can make a stand for them and hold them in a vise or make a stand and have it pivot. Anything has to be better than flailing away that long with a hack saw. GET A BAND SAW MY MAN!

[@melgross]

It drives me crazy every time I see him hacksawing something. Sometimes I think he does it that way deliberately. Now that he removed metal from the bottom of the tail stock, without shims, it’s likely lower than it should be by a thou or more.

[@iamtheomega]

@@bustednuckles2 "HF portable pbs" yeah, I wouldn't go beyond that with china junk, my pulley ate itself due to bad design, now I just use table saw or chopsaw, loads of carbide options nowadays.

[@artisanmakes]

Although I did not measure it, scraping would remove tenths, not thousands, or as i'd put it microns. I removed less material than I could shim for. Cheers. And I do not have a band saw capable of cutting metal.

[@warbirdwf]

You do a great job filming, editing and narrating your videos! Good pace as well. My only wish is to see a bandsaw in an upcoming video so you can retire the hacksaw! 😉

[@Bloodray19]

His arm is a bandsaw

[@edpopelas2844]

I like your scraper idea. Agreed, it is not ideal but a grand improvement over what they start out as.

[@johnj5985]

Love the quick lock feature in your design. Should save some serious time. Nice job!

[@ingvarbergstrom7260]

Thank you for the inspirational way to cover the ugly space where the nut used to be. Very good. On my mini I have a spring at the bottom in order to push the locking plate down so it dos not interfear with "something". Best regards

[@MrNigel1340]

Excellent modification, nice work, ignore the hack saw remarks and have a look at Allen Millyards video,s, he cuts entire engines up with a hacksaw and then rebuilds them, people don,t realise how quickly metal can be cut with care and patience. regards Doc Cox.

[@Dave.Wilson]

well said, I was about to add a similar comment mentioning Mr Millyard and his engines.

[@seansysig]

Now that’s a mod I must do on my Sieg Mini Lathe. The nut drives me nuts!

[@homemadetools]

Nice lathe accessory build. We shared this video in our homemade tools forum this week :)

[@KW-ei3pi]

Thank you for posting this. It's a great idea. For someone to duplicate it however, would almost require designing it from scratch, as all of your shots are very close up and it's difficult to tell if what we are looking at is right side up or upside down, front side or backside. As well, the final assembly isn't shown in a way that we can see how it goes together and how the parts work together. If your goal is to help others to duplicate your work, consider these thoughts and posting some drawings, exploded views, etc. Thanks

[@TouchDRO]

Man, I envy your hacksawing skills. I can't cut that straight with a proper horizontal bandsaw :)

[@michaellinahan7740]

as a C6 (Hare Forbes special) owner a tail stock lock arm was one of the first improvements after making a riser block and removing the compound slide (I have only used it a couple of times in the last year). However, I did it by first drilling through the web of the tailstock (front to back) then using a digital angle block to find the draft angle and machining a spacer for original bolt hole and new hole in the web. I then made a thick walled tube for the slug connected to the draw bolt to move up and down in. This gives support for the rotating bolt with eccentric machined as you did. The only other thing I did was to put a thrust bearing between the collar and brass spacer on the back. (incidentally I also have a thrust bearing under the locking nut on the QCTP) These are sturdy machines if you accept their limitations and use a work around when necessary.

[@clydebalcom3679]

A very interesting point about modifications to tools that are nearing their service life. It's just a matter of imagination.

[@Alwr400]

Nice job. I’d do the same if I had a milling machine but I’ll have to stick to a lock I can make solely by lathe or hand tools

[@jimzivny1554]

Nice project, looking forward to part 2.

[@Micscience]

Good job my man. I kind of want to do this to my tailstock. I hate using the wrench.

[@dondawson7409]

Great improvement, I’m going to put on my to do list

[@HM-Projects]

Excellent upgrade and nicely done.

[@howder1951]

Nice project and very well done, enjoyed, cheers!

[@artisanmakes]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@glennfelpel9785]

Nice work! Thank you for the ideas and the video

[@trahtrebor]

Glad to see someone else scraped their ways the same as me. Right? Nope. Work? Absolutely. Lol

[@Pauly5150]

Thanks. I enjoy your videos. Keep them coming.

[@artisanmakes]

Thankyou

[@nathanquinlan2719]

Another tease with the carbide flycutter. Any plans to sell the holder or release plans?

[@williamsworkshopuk]

Was there a reason you used marker instead of your shellac marking out fluid? I was about to make some but will hold off if you’ve found issue

[@artisanmakes]

Not at all, I use shellac when I need long term layout lines, such as when I file the part and handle it a lot. For quick marking out I stick to alcohol markers

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Another great video dude 👍 really impressed with how you overcome these issues on the lathe. What cad software do you use? Been meaning to learn a bit on cad so a good software to start with would be good.

[@SpaceMarshalGyorni]

FreeCAD is amazing. Not super simple to learn, but very powerful and translates well to professional CAD software.

[@artisanmakes]

Cheers Joe. The CAD software that I use is Solidworks, and to a lesser extent nowadays CATIA and Autocad. Everyone has their own favorite, the most popular one for hobbyists is Autodesk Fusion 360 which is free and easier to learn. There are some decent tutorials online for fusion and it is great because it supports g-code generating, incase you ever CNC your mill or lathe. Cheers

[@MachiningwithJoe]

@@SpaceMarshalGyorni thanks groonworld I’ll check it out and have a play.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

@@artisanmakes Thanks dudes I’ll download that fusion 360 and have a play see which I prefer. Would be more professional to map out my plans on cad rather than my child like drawings 😂😂😂

[@raymondj8768]

THAT IS BADASS BRO GREAT JOB !

[@cho4d]

very clean lookin build mate

[@artisanmakes]

Glad you like it, cheers

[@JustinTopp]

Fantastic video as always!

[@iamtheomega]

Plans? or is it DIY? what if you made another mini lathe using the mini mill also, then CNC'd it with Arduino, that would be the cheapest CNC mini lathe possible..similar to Levsha's Taig micro conversion with Arduino..

[@doc1701]

As a woodworker with pretty much the same mini lathe (coz, why not lol) I appreciate the time and effort in uploading the video. Keep up the good work. Stay safe. Kind regards Doc from South Australia

[@gary851]

OMG! and you still cut stock by hand. Make a patron so we can donate for handheld band saw if you don't have space.

[@Joe_Bandit]

This!

[@donmittlestaedt1117]

I plan to do this one myself.

[@سيدسيد-ص3م4ب]

Cool work sir 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@Chrispruitt83]

Hello Artisan, I notice in a lot of your videos you do mods/upgrades that stress the end result of saving extra time that's otherwise wasted. Have you considered investing in a machine (jigsaw, bandsaw, portable bandsaw, metal cutting saw, etc) that would greatly speed up the process of cutting your stock materials as opposed to doing so by hand. Love the videos by the way!

[@artisanmakes]

In the grand scheme of things, stock cutting with a hack saw really doesn't take as long as one might assume

[@YooProjects]

Great upgrade mate!

[@artisanmakes]

Thankyou

[@authentic4225]

Would be awesome if there was a set of blueprints somewhere for these parts?

[@trailxrage]

Hey Artisan Makes. I just got myself a lathe and was hoping you might have some insight. I am chasing a few bits and pieces for my lathe. Where do you get your tooling? And any recommendations on brand of centre drills and taps and dies? My first project is adapting a quick change tool post to my lathe and if possible want to get my tooling local.

[@trailxrage]

I am also in Australia.

[@artisanmakes]

Most of my lathe tooling is either from ebay or made here in the workshop. I have a few bits and pieces from hare and forbes, and I always pick it up in person because I like to see what I am buying, although tooling from there is expensive, albeit good quality. My centre drills are just cheapo ones from ebay, they do a fine enough job and have lasted me since 2019. For taps, I use an old frost tap set (though having used several brands over the years I cant tell too much of a difference between brands), but if I was starting out new i'd get each tap as I needed them, rather than paying for a set. The rest of my tooling is either stuff that has been used by my family for years, or stuff I can pick up from bunnings. As a hobby machinist on a budget, bunnings and ebay tools do the job just fine. Cheers

[@trailxrage]

@@artisanmakes Thank you for the insight. I am also on a budget so appreciate your tips. Looks like a bunnigs trip is on the cards. I had one other question. Where do you get your tool steel? Like you I tried turning down some all thread to make a shaft, but the metal is horrible.

[@deekthefirst]

Why do you keep jumping between imperial and metric?

[@HAbEXMr]

next upgrade: making a band saw form a hacksaw ;D

[@luigisantoro3666]

Ottimo

[@ARIFINLATHE]

Hello sir..and doing very well sir..you look very professional sir..we do the same job sir🤝🤝

[@Kineth1]

Looks nice!

[@artisanmakes]

Thankyou

[@mealex303]

Absolutely fantastic I love your vids A+++

[@artisanmakes]

Glad you like them!, thankyou

[@trashes_to_treasures]

8:17 a lot changes when the part gets cold. I would always wait for precision parts to completely cool down before testing the fit ✌️

[@artisanmakes]

I was aiming for a clearance fit here, expansion isn't a huge issue. I only tend to worry about that when I need a press fit of some type. Cheers

[@musicauthority7828]

I really like the fact that you reuse left over stock. rather than turning it into chips. that is something that most machinists do that bugs me. it seems like quite a waste.

[@colemine7008]

excellent

[@JoZf_Gibson]

Merci

[@Pushyhog]

fimography yay!

[@QlueDuPlessis]

Is it just me or is the sight of cast iron being machined sexy?

[@Pushyhog]

i wish l had all of his mods.

[@ianbertenshaw4350]

If you want to see what can be done to a mini lathe and a scraper check out Rotary smp channel ! That above all else is the thing I detest most about my mini lathe - the tailstock! Even with a lever lock fitted I still hate it and adjusting it so the machine turns parallel is a Pia ! Mine will soon be converted to a dedicated grinding machine .

[@kimber1958]

Outstanding job can’t wait to see it all painted up. kimberzelik@youtube

[@artisanmakes]

Still deciding on the final colour :) Cheers

[@sparrow4266]

Yeah mate. I’d chip in on a band saw. Should keep pretending you do it by hand though and have a razor sharp eyeometer. Make it an inside running joke 😉

[@ermannovalsecchi5774]

Non va bene l alluminio per quel lavoro!

[@artisanmakes]

Aluminium is just fine for use here. Even if there is wear, it would take years and years to wear out

[@jdmccorful]

Good modification. Thanks for the look.

[@artisanmakes]

Thankyou