The bearings in the live cone center on my lathe tailstock are beginning to feel rough, and I know it may not last much longer. I noticed in my latest (October) issue of the Woodcraft catalog on the back cover, they advertise a Pro live center set on sale at $39 (normally $59). It is described as having several different size cup centers and one cone center. I am wondering why the different sizes of cups and what their uses would be. I occassionally have use for a medium size cup center, but am kind of baffled as to whether or not the defferent sizes would be all that useful. Seems like a good price that maybe I shouldn’t pass up, even if I seldom use all of them. To all you spindle turning experts, do you have uses for this variety of centers?
Thanks, Gary
Replies
The Cup and Cup centers with removable pins are great for setting up green natural edge bowl stock because it makes getting the piece shifted into ballance much easier since the pin is not leaving a hole that it wants to reenter when shifting the stock. The bigger cone center would be very usefull in turning lamp stock that was predrilled for the allthread pipe. I believe that live center is going on my Christmas list. Never too many gadgets that can make life easier.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Just a suggestion Bruce, get some "domes of silence" or "furniture glides". they come in various sizes with three prongs and if you drill the centre to give a 3/16ths or so hole, they are very useful. Here DIY stores stock them.
For a start, if you knock one in the tailstock end of your turning and use the live tailstock, you do away with the need to snug up the tailstock every so often. Then, work can be removed and remounted easily. The legs will bridge most centre holes of lamp turnings. you can twiddle them round , putting one leg in the centre to allow offset turning and then swiveling it on that leg to allow offsets on other axes.
Mufti, Now that is a slick tip and new to me. ThanksWork Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Am I nuts? I'm sure, I think, that when I started messing with lathes the live center was the one connected to the motor--ie. on the headstock, and the tailstock end was the dead center--ball bearing or not. When did that convention change? Or is it one of those things that depend on which side of the pond one resides?
When refering to the Tail stock only, A dead center has no bearings, a live center has bearings.Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
A "dead center " has no active force, in which it resembles a dead person. A "live center", like a live person, has fprce, irrespective of bearings. Recent publishers of tool catalogs seem to have forgotten the simple logic.
Tom
It seems that the older literature refers to the active or powered center as the "live center". The tail-stock center is passive, so whether with or without ball bearings it is not "live". I think the makers of tool catalogs have recently changed that rule without my permission.
Tom
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