Ed McDonnell
Member
I use oneway live centers on my wood lathes. I have attachments I've bought / made over the years that could be pretty handy on the metal lathe for some pen making operations.
The oneway live center is MT2. The tailstock on my Microlux 7x16 is MT2. MT2 is MT2....right?
I put the oneway live center in the Microlux tailstock and spent the morning getting some work done. This afternoon I tried to remove the live center from the tailstock. No way. It was stuck but good.
Not wanting to risk stripping the threads on the tailstock leadscrew trying to unwind it out I switched to plan B. Tried some strap wrenches to see if I could break the live center loose by twisting. No go.
I tried some levers between the quill and live center body to see if I could pry it out. No go.
There is no thru hole or knock out bar for the tailstock. I had to disassemble the tailstock and remove the quill, so I could try using one of my transfer punches to pound the live center out of the tailstock quill.
A rubber mallet wouldn't do the job. A regular hammer didn't have what it took (made some nice sparks off the transfer punch though). I had to break out the BFH. 3 Lbs of hammer swung with some emotion behind it did the job.
Looking at the MT2 taper on the oneway live center, it is a lot longer than the MT2 tapers on my metalworking gear. Being longer, it is also skinnier at the end and inserts a lot farther into the quill. In any case, I won't be using it on the metal lathe again.
But, this leaves me wondering if a MT2 on a metal lathe is different than a MT2 on a wood lathe? Or was it just an unfortunate mismatch between my oneway livecenter and the microlux tailstock.
Ed
The oneway live center is MT2. The tailstock on my Microlux 7x16 is MT2. MT2 is MT2....right?
I put the oneway live center in the Microlux tailstock and spent the morning getting some work done. This afternoon I tried to remove the live center from the tailstock. No way. It was stuck but good.
Not wanting to risk stripping the threads on the tailstock leadscrew trying to unwind it out I switched to plan B. Tried some strap wrenches to see if I could break the live center loose by twisting. No go.
I tried some levers between the quill and live center body to see if I could pry it out. No go.
There is no thru hole or knock out bar for the tailstock. I had to disassemble the tailstock and remove the quill, so I could try using one of my transfer punches to pound the live center out of the tailstock quill.
A rubber mallet wouldn't do the job. A regular hammer didn't have what it took (made some nice sparks off the transfer punch though). I had to break out the BFH. 3 Lbs of hammer swung with some emotion behind it did the job.
Looking at the MT2 taper on the oneway live center, it is a lot longer than the MT2 tapers on my metalworking gear. Being longer, it is also skinnier at the end and inserts a lot farther into the quill. In any case, I won't be using it on the metal lathe again.
But, this leaves me wondering if a MT2 on a metal lathe is different than a MT2 on a wood lathe? Or was it just an unfortunate mismatch between my oneway livecenter and the microlux tailstock.
Ed