Tailstock Improvements
(Added 07/04/2003)


Adding A Plate For Mounting A Dial Indicator For Depth Of Cut Measurement

    As long as I had the tailstock stripped for painting, anyway, I epoxied a 1/4 X 1 HRS bar to the top.  This will hold a 2" travel dial indicator on a magnetic base, to aid in those operations that require accurate hole depth (Figure 1).  I also used the epoxy (PC-7) to fair in the edges of the joint.


Figure 1
Dedicated Locking Nut Wrench

    The nut to lock the tailstock to the bed is accessed form the back, and this makes it a bit of a pain to get to.  I bought some cheap combination wrenches to use for this application and for the carriage lock.  I cut the open end section off.  The stock nut is 11/16" across the flats, and my cheap wrenches did have that large a size, so I substituted a standard 3/8-16 nut (9/16" across flats, and I replaced the stock bolt with a longer one.  I put the box end on the nut, placed so that when toward the front the tailstock could slide and locked when all the way back.  This took a little trial and error fitting.  Then I put a couple of washers (3/8" and 1/2") over the wrench and secured the parts with a 3/8-16 nylon lock nut.  Figure 2 shows the new assembly.  For better appearance, in the near future I will turn a dedicated washer to replace the ones used now.


Figure 2

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