Shopsmith Forums

There have been several threads over time lamenting about the SS tailstock. Every so often I have a lathe project that requires a much beefier tailstock. I have toyed with the idea of making a sled for the way tubes out of billet aluminum and mounting a tailstock from a beefier lathe on it which has all kinds of design issues such as matching the spindle height etc. Then there is the possibility of using another headstock mounted on the way tubes with the quills facing each other. In that case the quills would have to line up perfectly as there is no adjustment there. I have actually never tried that to see if they line up. I searched for threads on the forum but could not locate one where that issue had been addressed. The other issue is using a quill as a live center. To my knowledge there is no way to attach a #2 morse taper to the quill. That means using the quill as a live center. This would mean spinning the drive free wheeling ( not under power ) in reverse. Is there any reason that would cause damage to the drive ? One could just remove the belt but that would mean not using it as a second head stock for powering spt's. Any thoughts ?
Paul

Search the forum. I promise you somewhere there's a thread with pictures of a guy who took I think a Delta tailstock and mounted it to a plate and mounted that to the way tubes.

See pics in this post as a start point:

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewt ... A6#p146547

peterm wrote:See pics in this post as a start point:

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewt ... A6#p146547

Thank you!

It may be possible to 'free wheel' the headstock by releasing the drive belt tension(max out the eccentric).

I think headstock bead to head alignment would be close.

Thanks guys. That thread is pretty much what I envisioned. I am going to test the theory on the shaft alignment from a headstock to headstock later today when my son comes over. If that works it would be less expensive to pick up another headstock off CL. My machinist buddy says he can adapt me a live center so the quill would not be rotating anyway. The irony is that around here I can pick up an entire SS with accessories cheaper than a heavy duty tailstock. Another headstock would be the most stable of any option.
Paul