Shopsmith Forums

Anyone on the Forums have a manual for this?
. I’m specifically trying to determine if there’s any option other than the dead center on the tailstock side. It appears to be machined from a single piece of metal with the cylindrical portion that slides into the tailstock casting. So I don’t believe there’s an option to pop out the dead center for an MT2-taper live center, for instance. Perhaps the manual would tell me for sure...
. (Note the crappy Mark 2-styled handle on this… must’ve saved them about a quarter-cent )

If it follows the same concept used in this older model Power-Kraft lathe then unfortunately it would be just one single machined piece: http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/657/2845.pdf

See part number 3050-12 in the diagram. Some other versions that may have copied the tailstock from their metal lathe did use a replaceable center with an MT taper as shown in this video: https://youtu.be/T9ueahldb1w?si=XlIqM-kg6USDdlqq&t=143

edma194 wrote: Tue May 28, 2024 11:11 pm If it follows the same concept used in this older model Power-Kraft lathe then unfortunately it would be just one single machined piece

I got a suggestion from a Facebook post to look in the 1958 Powr-Kraft tool catalog, and sure enough, Magna had created a Powr-Kraft-branded clone and confirmed it’s a #2 Morse Taper sleeve in the specs, so I should be able to remove the dead center.
.

That's fortunate. Powr-Kraft made a number of lathes, including a metal lathe that may have preceded the wood lathes. In one video on a restoration of an older wood lathe there was speculation the same parts from the metal lathe were reused.