Dear Quinn: thank you for your scrupulously detailed, unhurried descriptions of how to do things. Sometimes the other utube teachers forget the very front end of that learning curve, which can be very steep. Love your videos, thank you.

I recently spent a whole afternoon chasing acceptable tailstock alignment before discovering that the tailstock was 5 thou too low. I had to drink a tin of beer to get the right shim to correct it :-)

@jackdawg4579

2 жыл бұрын

the sacrifices we have to make for our hobby!

@mpetersen6

2 жыл бұрын

One reason its handy to have a pack of shim stock.

@jsleeio

2 жыл бұрын

@@mpetersen6 indeed, don't be like that guy in Zen & The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance

@johannriedlberger4390

2 жыл бұрын

you are lucky. too low is an easy fix. my tailstock was 0.3 mm too high. It took several bottles of beer to shim the headstock up :)

@johannriedlberger4390

2 жыл бұрын

@@mpetersen6 I abused a feeler gauge :)

Your videos inspire me to push my little hobby lathe and myself- something that can be intimidating as a beginner. Thanks, you are awesome!

Excellent!! I am impressed not only by your knowledge but your ability to teach us in such a clear and enjoyable way.

Quinn, I second the last comment! Your ability to hold the interest of a seasoned machinist yet inspire a newbie, amateur, beginner "like me", makes me feel like "I can do this"! Thanks for all your inspiring videos and articulate explanations so those of us not so experienced can advance. I'm very excited for the episodes I have not yet viewed!

After twelve years working in a machine shop, I went back to school to finish my BS in engineering. While there I worked on multiple projects as club machinist-for-hire. Every afternoon I would go to the shop to start working, and it never failed that someone had messed with the tailstock. Aligning it day after day, I got very good, and very annoyed! They had been demonstrating and practicing the tailstock offset tapers in classes, but not requiring students to realign everything. An essential skill, as you say, a machinist should not be afraid to learn. Thanks for the excellent demos!

One of my first projects was to cut a number 2 for my lathe. I had found a Jacobs chuck with a 3 taper. So with out having Quin to show me how I had to struggle a lot to get it mostly correct. Good thing the taper was the same so I had the angle built in. Stupid method of paper feeler gauge front and back till I was lined up tap tap. Yes I had no test indicator then. If I had seen your method 5 years ago I could have saved 27% of my hair. Thanks for the great instruction. Knowing a better way is always gooder.

Showed you to the Ex wife, she is now kinda interested in my hobby shop. After many years she referred to it as "his machine shop" instead of "he's in that shed as always." Thanks, keep doing what your doing. Your channel and Mr Pete's are my two go to channels.

It is 25 degrees in my workshop today. Too cold for a hobby machinist. Thank you for a vicarious machining experience.

"Turning a taper is so easy there's a good chance your lathe is already doing it without you knowing." -TOT

@MF175mp

2 жыл бұрын

100% chance, different thing how much

@robin1987100

2 жыл бұрын

Oh trust me Tony, I know it does..

@reynaldogarza2579

2 жыл бұрын

Haha! That’s funny!

This is ridiculously good timing ! A project where I need to make a taper just came up and I had a plan on what I was going to do , but I always learn a lot from your videos and I am certain my project will turn out better now or at least be easier!

@bertkutoob

2 жыл бұрын

Sometimes KZread's ability to pop something up at the right time is scary...! Scout's honour, I haven't used my lathe in years but was planning on making some tapers this coming weekend. And up this pops! How? I ask you, how did my mind get read...?

Heartily agree getting over the fear aspect and how easy it really is to do the re-alignment. Two things I learned when doing some MT3 tapers a few years back. First is that making a stub for the eventual tang or threaded draw bar hole on the end gave me more room for the cutting tool when working the small end at the live center. And we need that stub for one of those jobs anyway. Might as well put it in early and make it useful, right? The second thing I picked up was thanks to not having any prussian blue at the time. So instead I put three or four strokes of felt marker on the taper, set it in a socket very lightly and twisted a half turn. This wore off the marker on the high spots and I was able to use a wide lathe file to dress these wider spots down by that last tenth or so. A couple of repeats on this step and I was getting at least SOME marker removal along the whole length. This made for a very easy lock to the socket. One area of error I did pick up is that when using the indicator on the taper it was incredibly important to have the ball end of the stem dead on the center height. Even a small error in this will lead to the taper being off by a bit. But only when using a taper as the sample. For a cylinder like your second offset tailstock method it's not an issue. Hope that helps everyone.

I came in from the shop and tuned into this video. I just completed a small production run (20 pieces) of Morse Taper no.1. You did a good explanation on the set up.

One thing that was causing me some grief on my first tapers was the importance of tool center height. You really need to nail it or you'll cut a parabolic curve instead of a straight taper. I chased my own tail a bit with setting the taper up before I realized what was going on. No matter how careful you are setting the taper on the compound you can get a bad blue up with little contact if the surface is curved. Same goes for measuring the initial taper: if the indicator tip isn't exactly on center you will measure a parabolic curve. One workaround for the tool center height issue is to use a tool with a slanted cutting edge that makes an oblique contact with the work. That way you are cutting along an edge and not a point. Usually not desireable but it will save your bacon in this case. Tilt the cutting edge towards the chuck. Thanks for a good breakdown! As usual.

THank you for these videos. I have watched so many of them over the last year or two. You are a natural teacher and very interesting to listen to. This makes me want to go out and align my lathe but I only have wood tools!

this was a most valuable tutorial. because I'm an attachment freak and will be making my lathe do everything possible . thank you Quinn!

Thanks so much for this! I made a center indicator for my 4" rotary table, and cut a short MT2 taper using your cross slide method. It worked great. You are a great teacher!!

Immaculate tutorial Quinn, thank you as always. When I think how much I've relied on tapers I'm ashamed of how poorly I understood them. Time for me to make some tool holding!

Quinn, your method of using the dial gauge to set the taper is great to see. I have done it by calculating the amount of offset required to give the desired offset and used that to move the tailstock across. I even wrote a computer program to calculate the offset, but with your method you really didn't need to do any calculations! Wonderfully simple. That is the art of a professional machinist!

Your an excellent instructor. I been machining since 1976 and I learn from your vids!

Great video . I made my first taper with compound method . Was not real great ,however I'm fortunate enough to have Cincinnati Cutter and Tool Grinder and was able to salvage me efforts !!!

You are correct - I have not realigned my tailstock. I did however manage to take the bend out of my lead screw that had a .012 bow in it - that saved me from paying $500.+ for a replacement.

Here early. Yay. Im so stoked my first lathe is on its way. Ive learned so much from You.

Great timing. I just completed a 3” per foot taper using the compound. 7.125 degrees. I made a matching angle, used a magnet and aficed it to the compound to set it up accurately. Turned out perfect. I have never used the tail stock method. Well done, thank you

Yay! My mill/lathe combo is on the way, and this process has been eating a way at me. I'm a crankshaft grinder, so I can follow you easily. This is great. Thanks!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the new video, may you live long and prosper too :)

Thank you for the videos. I'm the old dog trying to learn new tricks and I really like how you show and explain things.

My lathes are not small hobby ones but still love learning from your videos!

Dear Quinn, thank you I really enjoyed your taper turning, you are amazing

Enjoy your videos more and more. Eloquent voice and motivational topics with tangible results.

Extremely cool. I have cut some long tapers on rifle barrels but I just went for what was pleasing to the eye, I never bothered much with the math. It's handy to know how to do it right!

Thanks for another great video. Your turning between centers method also has the advantage of removing the effect of any runout at the headstock end caused by any inbalance in the drive dog. On my lathe I need to adjust the tailstock to cut paralell, but using that single setup to measure and then cut a taper produces a great result.

Good one Quinn, you are right, I can't remember the last time i checked the lathe, also it donned on me how I would like to have a couple of extra tapered shafts ready for when the moment calls for it. Enjoyed, cheers to you and le chat!

Great info. A tip if you ever will use a wedge to remove the taper, turn the end a little smaller, that way the fit wont be destroyed if the edge is deformed by the wedge

Hey Quinn. I just want to say thank you for putting up these videos. I bought a lathe just like yours but with a mill attached to it because of workshop space half a year ago. I am not totally clueless what I am doing but your videos certainly encourage me to not just go out and buy all the stuff you could have for it. Instead I see a lot of stuff here that is really inspiring. So I will try to make some tapers just after I finish my gear hobbing attachment project. You give me a lot of ideas and you save me not only some money but also a lot of trial and error.

@xtphreak

Жыл бұрын

@NitroTom91 What machine did you get and where did you source it? I've been looking for a combo, almost pulled the pin on a PM1030 figuring it would be next year before I could get a benchtop mill. I'm very space constrained also. Thanks

@NitroTom91

Жыл бұрын

@@xtphreak It is called Proficenter 700 BQV from the Bernardo brand. However the castings for these machines are all chinese ones despite a lot of different brandings. I strongly suggest to look for a machine with built-in lever actuated gearing for thread cutting instead of change gears though. That is a real pain I will solve by installing an electric leadscrew at some point. Good luck to you.

I'm so grateful for your video. You are a great teacher, unusual on KZread. Many thanks.

I love the guest appearance of This Old Tony at the end. Nice colab.

After yet another review of your excellent machining instructional skills, I'm going to head off to my shop to attempt to build a spindle for my obsolete benchtop drill press! Thanks for the info Quinn!!!

A long time ago (55 years to be more exact) I was taught to make a taper on a lathe but using a grinding wheel fixed on the compound slide rather that a tool bit. It produced a brilliant surface finish! The use of grinding wheels on lathes does not seem to be popular anymore but I would appreciate a video on this technique if possible using a Dremel rotary tool or a similar device.

@MachiningandMicrowaves

2 жыл бұрын

I made a toolpost grinder using a 600 watt 12000 rpm motor with a VFD. The bearings in it are remarkably good and it comes with an ER11 collet, so like a muscly version of a Dremel in a machined aluminium shell. I don't use it often but it produces a surprisingly good finish. Next plan is to add a proper spindle based on a very long shaft ER16 chuck with serious bearings and stepped pulleys, but for now, this simple thing works well. I'd love to see Quinn make one, it's a niche tool, but the finish is just to die for.

@Evan-e-cent

2 жыл бұрын

@@MachiningandMicrowaves I have just finished mounting a 2HP 5300 RPM treadmill motor in place of the cross slide so that the motor shaft is on center. The grinding or milling tool mounts directly onto the spindle shaft with an adapter. I made the adapter with an internal 16 degree taper for an ER32 collet holder, and threaded the outside to take the nut from my other ER32 collet holder. The other end of the adapter has a hole turned to match the motor shaft. I plan to make a KZread video about that. It could be fitted with a PWM DC speed controller eventually.

@Kaboomf

Жыл бұрын

There's uses for that, but one has to be careful in preventing the abrasive dust from getting into the ways. I recently used a tiny grinder to true up a sprung three jaw that had considerable runout. Made a holder for a cheap pen-sized air grinder that takes Dremel bits, the whole grinder has a small enough diameter to clear the inside of my chuck so I could grind the whole depth of the jaws. The cheap grinder doesn't have the greatest bearings, but it worked well enough. Preloaded the jaws before grinding of course, with three bits of flat iron clamped between the angled sides of the jaws. It took a while because I could only take the tiniest of cuts without stalling the grinder, but now my "worn out" chuck runs dead nuts true again. I think I can forsee some other uses for that grinder attachment, like reshaping broken drill bits into various tooling.

These videos are priceless - easy to follow, straight to the point, with great visuals and no annoying music or BS. Keep up the great work!

Thanks Quinn, as always some great advice on taper turning.

Really interesting video that teaches! Thank you for sharing these methods and how tos!

Here I was just pondering making some soft-ish MT2 stubs; someone else had the idea of putting a center drill directly into one to save time tightening a chuck. Thank you for the clear, easy-to-absorb lesson 🙂

@brucematthews6417

2 жыл бұрын

For home shop use mild steel is fine. We tend to care for our stuff unlike students in a shool shop or workers in a plant environment. Some MT3 arbors I did in mild steel worked fine for many years on my old mill drill. So go for it!

@kennethelwell8574

2 жыл бұрын

Meanwhile...over at the mill... I do something similar, with a spotting drill, countersink, etc... in larger home-made sleeves that fit commonly used collets (3/8", 1/2") to save using the Jacobs chuck. Tool changes go faster without all that table lowering and raising, and moving away from the vise/job for clearance.

@SW-ii5gg

2 жыл бұрын

I used one I made for myself from unhardened 4140 at work for years , it was a MT5 for a #5 center drill if I remember correctly and it was in the same condition as the day I made after years of use.

Great video for someone with a passing interest like me. Thanks.

A hack method I used was: I had a piece of factory Morse taper tooling that had center holes at both ends. I chucked it between centers and indicated in the compound angle with that. This resulted in piece with about 80% contact when blued up and tested which I was understandably quite pleased with myself for. I'm dyslectic so math and I are not best of friends, so I end up trying anything to avoid too much math.

@davidtaylor6124

2 жыл бұрын

Pretty sure that is how I did the only morse taper I ever turned so far too.

@crichtonbruce4329

2 жыл бұрын

@@davidtaylor6124 I also turned a bunch of tool holders for our #30 taper milling machine. I roughed every thing out, and, as they were being turned between centers, I could take them off the lathe and check them against the mill spindle with bluing until I had proper setting on the compound. I then turned a fixture for the lathe that matched the mill taper to hold all the rough tool holders in the lathe for final turning. Again, I was quite pleased with myself!

Thank you, great video and guidance, as always. A little while ago, I had to produce a very long taper, slightly steeper than MT3, on my little mini lathe. Offsetting the tail stock accurately was proving very difficult . My work around, which I'm sharing with you, was to put a boring head in the tailstock, and use the micrometer feed on the head to accurately offset the workpiece. The work was supported at tail using a greased ball bearing running in opposing centre dried holes. A drive dog was going to take up too much travel, so driving was achieved with a cut down ball end hex key in the chuck and a hex head cap screw inserted in the workpiece. End results were (surprisingly) satisfactory.

Happy new year to you Quinn from England UK. Thank you for this video and especially for something else you always do. What is that I hear you ask? Well I'll tell you. You always list below all the tools that you use and where you bought them along with any links to previous instruction related videos that you have produced. I've changed computers and lost all my old bookmarks because I didn't back anything up and I wanted and found the original lathe alignment video you did which was very useful to me. Thank you for the professional way in which you conduct your tutorials on this channel. These two videos are just the ticket for my next job, thank you once again. I'll also take this time to wish all your KZread followers a happy new year as well.

What an excellent demonstration. I wanna make one now!

Thankyou. I feel confident enough to try now. Great presentation as always.

Excellent video as always. Make sure your indicator is touching the center of your part and use as thin an application of blue as possible to achieve the most accurate representation of contact.

@mpetersen6

2 жыл бұрын

And toss the Permatex. Dykem all the way. The Permatex is too oily.

I feel called out by that tailstock realignment comment :). Not sure when I last did it!

Better than a bought one IMO! - you're a magnificent instructor

Nice job as usual. You are an excellent teacher

Always fantastic content and great humor. I love your channel.

I just want to brag that my turret lathe uses straight shank tooling, which definitely isn't as accurate, but a heck of a lot easier to make. Good video as always!

Very useful information. It pretty much confirms what I was thinking. Thanks !

Yay! It's Blondihacks time!!

So the other day my wife had hung some pictures in our living room and when I got home from work she asked me if they looked straight.. I told her that they looked "Dead Nutz" to me. She looked at me with a puzzled grin and finished putting her stuff away... Thanks Blondie! Oh, btw.. your videos are awesome!!!

I love the tailstock method!

Thank you for another entertaining and useful machining video

I personally think you're one of the best machining teacher on yt. And no dobut you totally dominate in less-than-a-locomotive-lathe share. Keep going, you're doing great!

I'll try that, Quinn, just as soon as I have my lathe back together and running😀

Hi Quinn Youve made my mind up.Im gonna use the tailstock method to turn the con rod on the Stuart beam engine simply because using the cross slide, As you pointed out so well, limits the length of taper.As this is for aesthetics only it works well and,as you pointed out,helps get me used to checking and resetting the tailstock. Which i do all the time🤭 All the best and kind regards

Thank you your videos are always super informative and easy to follow..

Thanks for the vid and explanation. I do "SOME" machining to make parts for farm equipment. Im still a noob, and looks like I shall grab another dial indicator to do the offset tail stock. I like your videos, they help ALOT, Thanks again.

I worked for John Martz Luger carbine maker when I was younger and did barrels on a taper attachment. A taper attachment is great to have when one needs to harden your work's taper and then go back and grind the taper to a near perfect size. Another nice thing about a taper attachment is when one has tapered a barrel and left areas for sight ramps and attachments near the chamber area; the barrel is ready for the dividing head and it's follow through machining on the same measure of taper on the milling machine.

@chadking8542

10 ай бұрын

😢lathe bad finish

Maybe a video on lapping the tapered parts for better fit. No Yahtzee after the cutoff drop. Your videos ares always amazing.

I have had the exact same machine for nearly 20 years now. Was just making some 7/8-14 o-ring to 3/8 NPT adapters for my tractor hydraulics, and going to face off some precision hood spacers tonight. I ran CNC shops for several years, but cant justify buying them for home so will settle for finally putting DRO's on my home machines in the near future.

Awesome video. Learned a really great new skill......Thanks!!!

Great video and very clear to understand, full marks.

You got me... I dont think I have ever aligned my tail stock...or even checked it for that fact lol.

Pur non conoscendo la tua lingua guarderò ogni tuo video la tua è arte complimenti👏👏👏

Great vlog and very simple explanation, thanks.

My new favorite channel.

Happy New Year to you and your family.

Very interesting video, when I make Morse tapers I don't use the tailstock, just use a Morse tapers sleeve & when blueing it you can give it a twist it will give much better result as a test, hope this helps 🇬🇧👍.

Thanks for showing how simple, and non-frightening doing tapers on a lathe can be! 🤓 🤔But something seems like it's missing from this video, something that you rarely miss - you doing ok?! That's it! You missed a "Yahtzee"! Lol😅😁

Smoothest Start Trek reference EVER!!!

I need to do more stuff on my lathe. Videos like this enourages me to do that. Thank you.

Hi Quinn, great video. I think it's worth mentioning that the indicator should be set as close as possible to the centre height of the sample. if not you won't achieve the exact angle. The further off centre height the more inaccurate. Or you could use an indicator with a large flat surface. keep up the good work.

Tapers also enable home fabrication of scale model cannon barrels!

@skyclaw

2 жыл бұрын

I do enjoy a bit of scale model siege warfare.

Great video. I check the tail stock about once a year.

Nicely done.

Very good video Quinn...Enjoyed !

Great teaching style! Thanks for the info.

Good job. Great video. I happens I need to make a mt2 and I was not sure how I was going to do it. Now I know how. Keep up the good work.

Huh. Moving the tailstock to get the angle........ I'd not have thought of that, I think! Very cool!

Great Vid Quinn!

Having an aged Drummond round bed aligning the tailstock involves it rotating round the bed if I'm not careful which isn't that great for height either but you have motivated me to check!

You're a darned fine teacher!

as instrumentmaker we had centers with dovetails (think boringhead with a taper in place of cutter), it used gauge blocks to set ofset (then lock the slide), so fairly accurate as long as you didn't forget to use a level to get it parallel to the cross slide travel.

Always quality content. Thanks.

Thanks so much! Excellent tutorial! 😊

Great content. Thanks Quinn!

Your testing of course also depends upon the accuracy of the socket and hobby lathes can also be less than great in that regard. May you also live long and prosper so we can see a whole lot more of your excellent instruction!

Very helpful, I will give the first method a go.

Oh the fun we used to have with Prussian blue. A thin coat is invisible on a black surface, like machine handles, lol.

I use a boring head in the tailstock with a shop made dead center to do the offset method without ruining the zero on the tailstock. I use a small bubble level on the boring head to get the offset alignment correct.

Great video Quinn.👍👍

Hi Quinn, Another great video! Really solid information. "Whether you are handling honey, tar, dung, or Prussian Blue, a little sticks to your fingers." Or, at least that's how I remember Mark Twain said it. 😎 Be well & Best regards, Gottfried