Taig Lathe Tips and Tricks

New tips above the old ones. Updated December 13th, 2014

I am a new Taig owner, didn’t know about you before I bought mine from the factory. Sorry about that! At any rate I wanted some kind of cover for it so I bought a Sterilite 51 Qt. plastic bin from Walmart. It works fine. I used my heat gun to heat the area around where the cross feed handle sticks out. Fits tight but should keep the dust out. I think I will put a few holes in the upper rear to make sure it doesn’t hold any moisture. The number on the tag if this bin is 1787 and it is 24 3/8 X 15 1/2 X 11 3/4. Please share the info if you wish. -- Errol D. Severe
Observation #1: I just recently noticed - the little bolt in the center of the front way cover hits the Y axis leadscrew mounting plate before the saddle body reaches it. Minor, but annoying, as it is not a "hard" stop - it can bend the metal strips on the way cover if you're not careful... I've had the way covers off while setting up (& doing some minor mod's to) the mill, & just recently tried running it with the covers on... Clunk! It hits on something before it gets to the Y home switch ("What the heck?" I think, "It never did *that* before!") I remove the way cover to see what's wrong, & immediately see the mark it left on the leadscrew mount. Aha! Easy enough to fix - just carve out a small notch in the leadscrew mount to clear the bolt/nut so the plate hits the saddle body instead. I did this with a Dremel tool with the mount still on the machine.
Observation #2: The MPS2003 CNC controller doesn't like 3.3v parallel ports - it'll run, but the motors run rough (they make a growling sound & vibrate a lot) & stall easily. They may be losing steps - I haven't checked. The solution? Use a breakout board that has 5v outputs (the best option) or find a 5v parallel port add-on card (this could be difficult.) I've been planning on getting a breakout board anyway, so this isn't a problem for me. I discovered this while setting up Mach3 on a new PC I built specifically for running Cad programs & the mill (3.06 Ghz P4, 1 Gb memory, screamingly fast video card). An older PC (it pre-dates 3.3v ports) runs the motors much more smoothly, but its CPU is too slow (333 Mhz P2) to handle Mach3 in any kind of real world usage. Note - I haven't tried running the MPS2003 software on the new PC, only Mach3, so I don't know if it would do any better. --Rich Crook

November 11th, 2005
I have a MaxNC 10CL mill and wanted to use Dremel bits for small, fine work. I purchase most of my bits from Widget Supply (www.widgetsupply.com) because they have a good selection of carbide and HSS burrs and cutters. However, most of the smaller bits have a 3/32" shank, for which there is no collet. My solution was to take a 5/32" roll pin (sometimes called a split or spring pin) and insert that into the 5/32" collet to use it as a sleeve. I put the 3/32" Dremel bit into the roll pin and when I tighten the collet nut the bit is centered. So far I haven't tried to machine any metal with this setup, only wood, but it works great. Since Taig and MaxNC use the same collets I though you might find this interesting. -- Roy Seifert

August 23rd, 2005
On Using SSR's with the CNC mill:
From the TurboCNC group about how to use an SSR: You can get solid state relays from almost any electronics supply house. Digi-Key and Mouser both carry them, I think. If you're located outside the US, there is bound to be another supplier closer to you. Fair warning, these things tend to cost. A low-end SSR can run $20. A high-end SSR (240V or so at a lot of amps) can run $30. A much better bet is to hit Ebay and see what's selling. Searches on: crydom "solid state relay" ssr can sometimes bring up good stuff. Crydom is not the only manufacturer, but they're pretty common. Teledyne also makes them, or used to, anyway. The schematics for using one are dead-easy. The Crydom SSRs are little black boxes with four lugs on them. Two lugs are for power. Run the hot wire into one side of the relay and out the other. The neutral wire goes straight to whatever you want to control. The other two lugs are for the signal wires. One is marked + and one -. Plug ground into - and your signal into + (or plug +5V into + and your signal into -, or any other combination.) When the + side has about +2.5V more than the - side, it'll trip. So sending one a TTL signal out of a parallel port will make them go. The Crydom SSRs have optoisolation built into them. I can't vouch for any other vendors, but that seems to be pretty standard. So the wiring really is minimal. I already got some SSR's off of Ebay (<$12 each including shipping). I'm just going to wire up an electric outlet through these two SSR's, and plug the coolant pump (flood, pond pump) into one and the spindle motor into the other. -- Eric Uptagrafft
On mounting the Taig stepper couplers with the little nylon tubes:
I found it was easier to trim them to different lengths making sure they were no too long and also trimmed to a smooth point AND bevel the holes slightly with a larger drill held in my fingers. Slipped right in. did first one in 20 minutes. Did last 2 in 4 minutes. --Ron Cole

April 1st, 2005
The crosslide was fixed with no problem, following the instructions you provided awhile back. One thing you might want to add to the instructions (in your tips section) is a source that I've found for an inexpensive (<$10) face pin wrench that fits the crosslide bearing block. I had a tough time finding one and was about to make one when I found this adjustable wrench from Reid Tools, it is part number AMF-258. The pins needed to be filed down a little bit but that was all.
--Walter Anderson
Here are some good sources for small cutters. My range is generally in the .010 - .015 range.
- Northbay cutting tools
- American Carbide
- Discount tools
- Drillbit City
I think in some cases you will find most of these places a bit more economical than Cutting edge tech and most have a better variety of "miniature cutters". Don't overlook the information that is on some of these sites, especially Precise Cut.
--Roger Malinowski
I learned something fun today that really made my day. After fiddling with my y-axis leadscrew nut to cut down on backlash, I was getting a grinding noise and sticky movement that I tracked down to the y-axis endplate. I took the end plate assembly apart and found that one of the bearings was worn out (I probably over-tightened the nut at the end). The cool thing is that these bearings are exactly the same as rollerblade bearings ($5 or less for a tube of them, I keep them around for projects). I popped in two new ones and it's smooth as butter. I'm glad that this was so simple and cheap to fix.
-- Matt Kalinowski

October 24th, 2004
I was looking around for a supplier of worm gears to build a dividing head (courtesy of one of your generous donors) and I came across an extremely interesting article on building your own Worm gears. This looks like another weekend shot as I play on the lathe but what the hell. The site is www.atmsite.org and the author of the article is Jim Sapp. It looks like a pretty straight forward procedure (but then again they all SEEM that way. I'll let you know if I have any success. Also with regard to the division plate. I built it the hard way, stepping off around a circle with dividers until I had the forty eight equal spaces I was looking for. I hope the division head will be faster than trying to make the 64 hole plate I need and god forbid the 120 hole plate that I suspect I am going to wind up needing. -- Guy Smith
Just built the simple boring bar from your plans. Instead of making a concentric bushing, I offset the hole about 1/16 " and made the bushing about 1/8 " longer so that it protrudes from the back. I drilled a hole for a tommy bar. It works ok so far. No need for shims and you can adjust the bar exactly as you want for different bars.. I find the holes on the top of toolposts a magnet for chips, they seem to fill up quickly. I just use a piece from some 10-32 rod and a 10-32 thumb screw instead of a recessed cap screw. I mounted the blank bushing in the holder and drilled it mounted on the cross slide. Rather than center it you just move over the amount of offset you want. -- John McLaren

June 8th
On Problems with the Taig CNC Mill
The Taig CNC mill started drifting in the Y direction, when using the "Set Depth Inc 6". This happened before as the computer started to fail. The computer showed no signs of a problem running other aps. Changed out the computer, now keep an old spare, the problem went away. Bottom line, if you start having this type of problem, try an other computer.-- Ken Kelso

May 6th, 2004
On Setting Rapid Speeds on the Taig Mill with MPS2000 software (from Taig): The rapid G0 speed is changed only with the rapid parameters. Typically the settings should be 600, 800, 1. If this doesn't work try 600, 600, 1

February 23rd, 2004
On generating toolpaths with a CAD program for the CNC mill.(via taigtools yahoogroup)
For most machine parts, as opposed to "art pieces" that often have complex curves or surfaces, a CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) program can quickly and easily generate tool positions and tool paths. I believe this is wise for a beginner because then they gain a better understanding of the CAD/CAM process and will be able to read and edit g-code programs while machining a part. If you always use a CAM program, either directly to draw the part and generate the g-code files or to create g-code files from drawings you will gain little understanding of what is happening and the final g-code rograms that are running your CNC machine will be incomprehensible. This is being written for primarily for work to done on a CNC vertical milling machine. The same principles apply to CNC lathe programming, but because of a lathe tool geometry, the cutting edge of a lathe tool has to be supported by a shank, when you write programs for a CNC lathe you have to constantly be aware of that tool shank and what surface of your tool is actually available to cut material. Thus even though a lathe tool often has a radiused tip it can only cut over a limited angular range. In contrast an end mill can cut in surfaces at any angle in the X-Y plane. That is an end mill can cut left to right (X). It can also away from or toward the operator (Y). Or at any angle in between. Secondly, when programming any CNC machine I always write the locations as the locations of the CENTER of the cutting tool. The center of the end mill or drill, or the center of the radiused tip of a lathe cutting tool. I do not write the locations of the surfaces of the machined part and let the CNC mill or lathe apply "cutter radius compensation". I realize this is controversial, and it does have a drawback that I shall deal with later. But for now, as you read this, I shall be developing the location of the center of the tool, not the location of the cutting edge. --Del Stanton

May 29th, 2003
On locating scribed center marks on the mill:
If you've scribed lines on a part to locate the centers of holes to be drilled in the Taig mill, you can accurately locate the crossing point with a simple device found in every home (except maybe a bachelor's!!) - ie. a sewing needle. Take a needle of a decent size, grind off the loop end so you'll have a nice, straight shank and mount it in your drill chuck. Bring the chuck down until the needle point is almost touching the surface of the part. Then simply use your X and Y axis handwheels to align the needle tip with the crossed lines. Because the needle tapers to such a long, sharp point, it is very easy to align. No centre punching is required. I find that having the mill on (so the point is rotating) helps in the alignment. Scribing the lines thru layout blue (I use a permanent marker) makes the process even easier since the lines are more easily seen. Once aligned, replace the needle with the centre drill/drill bit of choice and have at it. I've been using this method extensively in the building of Kozo Hiroako's 3/4" scale 0-4-0 switcher steam locomotive. I've used it on many mating parts and they always fit together perfectly. And you can't beat the cost!! -- Laurie Keating

February 12th, 2003
On making machining steel easier (via taigtools yahoogroup):
I suspect that there may be others new to machining that might benefit from my experience in tracking down the problems that I described in a post two weeks ago. Here are some initial impressions:
1. Got some 12L14 steel. Wow! This stuff cuts like butter! Highly recommended for the beginner.
2. Got some "Safe Tap" cutting fluid. In Canada, Busy Bee Tools sells this stuff in a 4oz container for about 6 bucks, so no big outlay if you don't like it. Greatly improved finish and advancing the tool becomes almost effortless.
3. I have discovered that my concepts of accuracy needed some tweeking. Got some shims (sampler pack from Lee Valley Tools under 10 bucks) that let me shim to the half thou. I was slightly off, but the technique of using a drill shank in the collet and a thin piece of metal between it and the cutting edge worked easily and effectively!
Things are going so well that a cylinder for my first steam engine ended up too short by a large margin; I just love seeing those threads of metal peel away! Thanks to all for the expertise. --Tony Yue

January 18th, 2003
On removing the Taig lathe crosslide screw:
Look at the exploded diagram of the lathe on the Taig website (at the bottom of that page). Here is what you should do, starting from scratch:
1. Don't ever remove your leadscrew, stop right now, it is very easy to break. If you feel you have to, and have emailed me to make sure you should, then you can start with #2.
2. remove the carriage (100-11) from the lathe
3. hold the carriage in a vise with soft jaws
4. remove the slide (100-26) by screwing it all the way out
5. either make a small face pin spanner to engage the two small holes in the crosslide bearing (100-20), or use a chain vise grip with soft packing between the jaws and the bearing, and unscrew the bearing from the carriage.
6. hold the crosslide screw (100-17) by the threads in a vise with soft jaws. Unscrew the acorn nut (100-23)
7. gently heat the dial (100-22) with a heat gun or torch to relax the loctite. Just a little heat, don't make it glow red!
8. unscrew the dial (it may be hot!) holding it with your favorite round thingy remover, in my case a chain vise grip with soft packing, whatever you use, use soft packing to prevent marring the dial. Do not use a lot of force, or else I guarantee you will break the leadscrew. Try not to tweak it up and down or side to side as you do this.
9. slide the crosslide bearing off the screw. That should leave you with all the components separated and you can then see what is bent, if anything, and replace it with your new screw.
August 16th, 2002
I am having a ball with my new lathe . I opted for the small footprint with the motor behing the headstock . Bad choice . My motor was the open frame type and got covered in brass chips the first time I used it . I didn't want to lose the small footprint so I fashioned a shield out of some aluminum flashing material that protects the motor and my electric switches from metal pieces which probably would have shorted eventually . Cheap fix . I formed the sheet metal to curve backwards around the motor . Works quite well and keeps all the cuttings in an easier pile to clean up . -- Fred Burton .

July 3rd, 2002
It has been a while so let me tell you about my 3/8" tool holder, for some time I have like many others used the standard tool holder that Taig makes and it works very well, but recently I bought a lot of 3/8 inch tools for my larger lathe and though that it would be nice to use them on the Taig. As any machinist knows from time to time it is necessary to regrind them to sharpen, my goal was to make a tool holder and boring bar holder in one tool that had two setscrews that allow it to be mounted parallel to the headstock for greater holding power, this is what a lot of Taig owners, have made, but what I wanted to do is make it adjustable in height so that shimming would not be needed, after carefully flycutting the surface bottom for correct flatness and establishing the base that the tool height would be measured, I milled a 3/8" slot with the Taig lathe itself and also drilled the hole that the boring bar would fit into. Using the lathe itself made sure that on my individual lathe the height and straightness would match, I enlarged the upper surface of the groove that the turning bits will be held, so that there was room to move the bits upward. From the bottom I drilled six holes all the way through the block and tapped them this would allow the full length of the bit holder to be adjusted. The set screws were put in from the top down under the cutter and top down above the cutter in the tool holder, this allow the height to be adjusted from the top without having to take the tool holder off the lathe table-by simply removing the top screws and slipping in an Allen key to unscrew the setscrews and raise their height. This tool having two hold down screws to the table has made it much more stable when taking greater than "normal " cuts there is no slippage, In addition it can be mounted at 90 degrees to the headstock as well. -- Chris DiCintio
I also made a new flycutter using the Taig blank holders, of course this is not anything new, but my goals here were different, one, the flycutter had to have fast replaceable standard lathe cutters (Carbide) 3/8" tools brazed tip, these are the cutters that you can interchange with above tool holder and are cheap and very available, I like and use only US made ones. Two, I wanted a flawless cut with no vibration marks due to instability of a small cutter that can happen with less than stable flycutters, I am sure we all have seen little "eddy" currents at times cutting certain materials in the finished cut, which usually requires a final super light cut. Three, I wanted a safe cutter that did not rely on the strength of the setscrew alone to hold the cutter in/on. Four, I wanted a cutter with a decent tool path; meaning I wanted to cut wider than the flycutter I was using. I have had at times needed to use the flycutter to make grooves as well as surfacing, so the cutter had to be drop dead strong. How is it made? Taig solid arbors have a threaded portion and a solid end, the threaded portion is designed to screw onto the headstock, the solid end is the part that are drilled or bored to make new tools, for this flycutter a 1/2" inch hole is drilled on a sharp angle that starts from the upper portion of the arbor and exits in the solid portion. It is very important that it exits out the solid portion since we want to remove metal here to maintain balance of the cutter that will fit into the holder. The end of the arbor is drilled and tapped to place a set screw that will hold the cutter in place, this cutter works in this manner- slide the 3/8" cutter into the hole that was drilled and slide it so that the cutter does not protrude in the upper hole that is hollow then allow the cutter to protrude in the exit hole that is solid, the extra weight of the protruding cutter is off set by the fact that a hole is drilled and metal was removed the cutter can be adjusted slightly so that when spinning at higher speeds there are no balance problems the flycutter will perform flawlessly, I have frequently surfaced Titanium and have taken absurd cuts with this setup, the finish that I have been achieving is second to no other flycutter that I have made or purchased. -- Chris DiCintio
I have one other Taig tip for the Taig mill, this tip has been posted to the group but I have not heard anything about anyone trying it which surprised me since it is a "free" modification meaning for a little time and scrap metal you get a great return, that is you can increase your Taigs Y axis by 1.50 inches from 5.5 to over 7 inches on more than one occasion I have needed a few turns more to cut a project and ran out of movement, Taig makes a mill that has more X axis movement but none with more Y axis, so here is what I did, I removed the crank handle and mounting plate from in front of the mill and unscrewed the leadscrew I then flycut a block of aluminum approx 1.5" thick and the size of the mill recieving surface, I then drilled a center hole larger than the leadscrew so it could turn freely, I made a template to mark out the location of the mountion screws on the mounting plate and replaced the short screws with longer screws and the freshly flycut ( on all sides of course) block was slipped into place, mounting plate and leadscrew replaced. I have used this setup for about one year or so with perfect results, in addition no other modifications are needed, due to Taigs overkill engineering the lead screw is long enough to allow full movement of the new Y axis extension. I use a machining vise that has no place on the Taig mill, due to this set up I can mount a 4 inch wide machining vise and machine parts in one set up that I could not do before. I am interested in hearing from anyone that tries this mod. and what they think of it. -- Chris DiCintio

April 15th, 2002
( On Tip for setting tool bit height, or 'no more shims'.) Frustrated having to use shims to set the tool height? Try this. The tool mounting block has two set screws for the tool bit. Drill a third hole off center, and closer to the set screw closest to the cutting edge. This hole allows an allen wrench to pass through. Now drill and a tap a hole to allow a third, embedded setscrew in the bottom channel of the tool slot. Put a set screw in it so that it is adjusted slightly above the bottom channel surface, about 1 to 2 mm. Now when you put your tool bit in it will 'rock' like a see-saw on this new screw head. As you tighten the original front and back set screws you can quickly set the height as you insert and tighten the tool bit. The embedded screw can be used as a 'course' adjustment, but most of the time you can 'fine' tune the height with the two original set screws. No more shims!. Finally, another tip, you can make a reference piece that can be placed on the bed and has a height exactly level with the 'center' height. Place it on the bed to set your tool height, and take it off when your finished setting the tool height. --Chuck Ziegler, Melbourne, Australia
(On the CNC nylon coupling pins, via taigtools list) As a result of some of the conversions I'm doing with my mill I needed some additional plastic pins for the motor/leadscrew couplers. I just thought I'd post the specs Taig gave me for these here for reference. Nylon type 11 tubing .125" O.D. x .08" I.D. .5" long cut at 45 degree angle on one end. --Ken Jenkins

March 15th, 2002
(On troubleshooting a problem with the CNC mill, via Taigtools list) I was trying to mill a small part with my CNC Taig, out of 3/16" brass. The brass flat was clamped to a sacrificial piece of 5/8" aluminum, which in turn was secured to the bed via T-nuts. I was using a Taig 3/16" double-ended 2-flute cutter in a Taig collet. Pretty standard, right? I was pretty conservative cutting the contour, going down only 0.125" per pass. It would take me 8 passes to finish the part.
On the 2nd pass, the cutter plunged clear through the brass and deep into the aluminum plate, stalling the mill. I had to release the cutter from the collet to free the mill, and then manually lift the spindle up to engage the lead screw. Oh, oh. Broken mill? Since I'm new to CAD-CAM, I figured I'd messed up the G-codes, but a half-hour's study of the printout found no problem. So I tried it again. This time it messed up on the first pass. Same result. I was sure the G-codes were ok, but to prove it I ran the program on a piece of 2x4. Flawless. So I tried again. It plunged on the7th pass. This seemed pretty random. I was using an old 486sx laptop for control. Could it be messing up? No way to tell.
After several hours of frustrating "analysis" (that word is in quotes for a reason) I realized what was happening. I was inserting the cutter too deep into the collet, so the tool was too short. There's only so much lead screw, and when you run out there's nothing left to hold the spindle up. It dropped of its own weight. So I pulled the cutter farther out from the collet and tried again. Perfect part. Just to be sure, I made that part twice more. No problem. Another lesson learned. Education sure comes hard. --David Goodfellow

February 3rd, 2002
(On Software for CNC) I have been reading all the user group discussion about software I have purchased a package that generates gcodes similar to Supercam but much easier to use and complements Supercam and can be configured very easily to the requirements of the machine the software runs with windows . I have used the software for the last couple of months and I think it is slick the software supports mills and lathes. I have no financial interest in the software but I think for people that are new to g code programming it is a good starting point. Would you add their web site to your links page if possible their website is www.cadem.com
-- Jim Beggerow
(Tracy Presnell sends in his review of the Taig CNC mill:)
And, here's a little of my cheers/jeers list:
Cheers
1. This machine ROCKS! Not only is there no other way to make complex parts, for an itsy bitsy mill it is very rigid and precise.
2. Lots of travel for it's size
3. Very accurate
4. Easy to set up and get running
5. Generally well made
6. MPS2000 software is easy to use if you take the time to learn G-code
7. Editing G-code programs can be done with any number of text editors
Jeers
1. Lack of limit switches allows overtravel. I haven't broken anything....yet
2. Headstock dovetail was out of alignment with slide by quite a bit when received. Caused stepover marks when making multiple passes
3. Headstock dovetail had to be shimmed to get spindle to swing true with table
4. Headstock dovetail should be longer for more adjustment
5. Section in handbook on G-code is incomplete, vague, contains typos and is poorly written. I got more information from a Mazak handbook.
6. Z-axis stepper won't run at rapid traverse speed going up. It travels for a bit then you hear the motor squeal and it looses it place. I've learned to not program a rapid travel. This was the case when the machine first arrived and the Z-axis slide was looser then than it is now.
7. Bellows cover for the Z-axis would be nice. I may sew one up for mine. If it works out well, I may make it available.
8. Z-axis knob would be better as a handle (likeon the vise). X and Y are okay but when making hand adjustments on Z the weight of the slide makes the knob a pain in the wrist if you do it much.
9. No parts breakdown for ordering repair parts/spares
Overall I'm pretty pleased. The machine is doing what I wanted it to with the Delrin parts (meaning it's paying for itself) but the lack of software and the poorly written chapter on G-code made getting going an arduous task. Even if I had the Millwizard software, I still have to program most parts by hand. I downloaded an evaluation copy of the other software package (can't remember the name at the moment) and it seems better suited to things that are not complex shapes (like the face). I have played with it a little and while its no Autocad, it may be a good choice to improve programming speed for everyday parts.
--Tracy Presnell (be sure and look at his pictures in the picture section)
(On Getting Started with the lathe)
Getting started with the Taig lathe and the three-jaw chuck
First, bore the jaws of the chuck so that they will grip the workpiece properly.
For your first turning exercise, you will need something to machine! I would suggest buying a round piece of aluminium 3/4" diameter and a foot long. Using a hacksaw, cut off a piece about 3" long. Try to get the ends as square as possible, as it makes the facing operation easier. The remainder can be used for further practicing. Adjust the belt on the pulleys to get a rotational speed of approximately 1500 revs/min. Different materials require different speeds at the tip of the cutting tool, and this gives about the right speed for turning aluminium with a diameter of 3/4".
Place your piece of aluminium in the chuck with about 2" protruding and tighten it. It's a good idea to tighten it progressively using the three tommy bar positions, to ensure it is gripped evenly by the three jaws. Remove the tommy bars and rotate the chuck by hand to make sure that it isn't fouling anything, nothing is going to fly off, and that the workpiece isn't off centre. It's very important to always make this check before you start the motor, to ensure that the tommy bars or chuck key have been removed. If left in the chuck they can act as high-speed projectiles and cause serious injury, or contact the lathe ways and damage them.
Mount a round-nose tool in the toolpost, and check that the tip of the tool is at the same height as the centre of the workpiece. If you have the tailstock, you can use the tailstock centre for this check, it'll be more accurate. If the tool isn't the correct height, you'll need to pack the toolholder. Don't have too much of the tool overhanging the toolholder, as rigidity is important. Position the toolholder so that the tool is at right angles to the workpiece. You don't have to measure it, just set it by eye so that it looks right. Make sure that the toolpost screw and the tool securing screws are tight. Position the carriage and cross-slide so that the tip of the tool is at the end of the workpiece and nearly touching it. Move the carriage towards the headstock until it is about 1/2" from the chuck, and position the stop rod so that there is no possibility of anything contacting the chuck when the carriage is as far left as it can go. Tighten the stop rod thumbscrew, move the tool back to the end of the workpiece, and then back to the chuck, checking again that nothing nasty is going to happen when machining the piece of aluminium along its length. Move the tool back again so that the tool is at the right hand end of the workpiece. Turn the chuck (again) and make sure that nothing untoward will happen when you start the motor.
Put on your safety goggles (you have got a pair, haven't you) and start the motor. Make sure the chuck is rotating so that the top of it is moving towards you (clockwise relative to the headstock). Move the carriage to the left about 1/4", and advance the tool until it just touches the rotating workpiece. Note the setting on the scale, back the tool out slightly so that it no longer contacts the workpiece, and move it to the right, just beyond the end of the work. Move the tool in to the previous setting you noted, and a further .010". Now you are ready to make your first cut! Slowly move the carriage to the left. When the tool contacts the end of the workpiece it will start cutting. Continue moving the carriage, trying to keep it moving as smoothly as possible, until you have reached the limit set by the stop. Note the scale reading, back out the tool, and move it back to the right. Congratulations, you have just turned your first piece of metal!
--Leon Heller
(On the use of the 3 jaw chuck, via Taigtools list)
I would like to pass on an application that the Taig three chuck excels at with its replaceable aluminum top jaws. I have built many models using gear blanks from W.M. Berg and PIC. The blanks have the teeth cut and the center hole drilled. In order to lighten the gears by counterboring the sides I needed a means to grip the gear without damaging the teeth. The solution was to modify the aluminum top jaws. To do this accurately a short piece of 3/8 crs was clamped at the inside of the steel master jaws. This would hold the jaws tight and center them up. Next I turned a .150 deep recess in the top jaws that would fit the gear. Now with the crs piece removed I could accurately and securely grip the gear without damaging the teeth. Over the years I have made many custom blanks. When it is time to reload a set I take a skim cut of the jaws to ensure TIR and I am up and running. I just checked out the Taig web site and noticed that a 4 jaw scroll chuck is now offered. This chuck should work even better since this application only clamps a specific size. I hope this information helps someone with their unique chucking applications.
--John Walters

January 12th, 2002
(On Slitting Collets, via taigtools list)
I side stepped the slitting problem by drilling and tapping a 6-32 set screw from the side (I needed a holder for the small diameter Dremel tool bits). So, in a sense I made a tool holder instead of a collet, but it works fine for the specific size I drilled.
--Joel Mowers
(On slitting collets, via taigtools list)
I force fit the collet on a wood shaft with a slight taper and hand cut the slots with a jeweler's saw.
--Don Mock

October 16th, 2001
(On Extending the Tailstock Center)
I can't believe it took me this long to figure it out, and I don't recall ever seeing this tip, though I haven't read all the newsgroups, forums et al. Anyhow, on occasion I turn using the tailstock for support, but if you have the cutter on the front t-slot of the cross slide, you can't reach the last 1-2" of work, and if you put it on the back slot, you can get up next to the chuck. Then the wheels finally clicked, make a center out of 3/8" stock, chuck it in the drill chuck, and hang it out off the tail stock. The down side is it isn't very rigid, but the upside is, you get full travel with the cutter on the piece of work. -- Paul Hail
October 3rd, 2001
(On Milling, via taigtools)
"What exactly can you do with the "milling" attachment for the Micro Lathe 2. What is "milling?"
To help understand what a milling attachment is used for on the lathe you need to know what "milling" is, and to help understand we will start with what turning is. Turning is what you do on a lathe. The object to be machined is rotated in the lathe and a non-rotating tool is used to remove metal from the rotating workpiece, as would be done to reduce the diameter of a shaft chucked in the lathe. Milling is kind of the opposite way of removing metal from the workpiece. The workpiece is held fast to a moving table, and a rotating cutting tool, such as an end mill is used to remove metal from the piece as it is fed into the rotating tool with the movable table. If you don't have a milling machine, and you need to mill a slot in a piece of metal with your lathe, you can mount the workpiece to a milling attchment and put an end mill in the chuck on the lathe and feed the workpiece into the mill with the attachment. Hope this makes sense. It's easier to visualize if you can see it done. -- Dean W
August 8th, 2001
(On turning wheel hubs) I made a new tool to work on the Taig. I was thinking of using a 1/8" bolt to turn my Hubs on. Well I could not find one. But, I found a 3/16th " about 3 in long. In the Army Surplus store. Only threaded part way. So I cut off the head, and drilled a pilot hole in the threaded end. so it would turn on the live center and it worked great. -- Wayne Fields
(On turning tubing true, from the taigtools list) There are several options for turning tubing true. I'll assume the work to be done is larger than you can hold in one of the Taig collets.
1. Option 1: - easiest: True the three jaw at the diameter of the tubing to be held and hold the work with it. A bit of hardwood or metal turned to a snug fit in the tubing will help resist deforming by the pressure of the jaws. If you're cutting snap ring grooves you're using pretty thick walled tubing, so this may well be good enough.
2. Option 2: - Use the 4 jaw and a dial indicator. This spreads out the clamping force, possibly eliminating the need to plug the tubing, and is fine for several pieces. Kind of a drag if you have a hundred parts to make though.
3. Option 3: - A few buck out of pocket unless you make your own, which is tough to do without a mill: Get the full soft jaws that cover the entire chuck face when fully closed. Mount them up and true the jaws for the work diameter. The full jaws will spread the clamping force and likely will avoid having to plug the tube to avoid deformation by clamping pressure.
4. Option 4: Cheap, but time consuming the first time you do it. A good trick to know, and once you've done it, the second time goes a lot faster. Reading this will likely take longer than making a collet once you have done it several times.
  You can make special collets to be held in a 3 jaw chuck. Mark one jaw of the chuck with a punch, small enough to be gentle on the chuck, large enough not to get lost in normal dings and usage marks.
  I mention aluminum or steel as collet material. For a small production run, use aluminum. For permanent tooling use steel. See the warning below before going gung-ho on making this style collet for the Taig, I think the soft jaws may be a liability in this instance, although I love soft jaws for many things.
  Turn a bit of aluminum or steel shaft (or thick wall tube should you be lucky to have some that will work) to 1/16 to 1/8 inch over the size of the work to be held. Do clean work of this, you want a nice smooth surface. Cut off a length as long as your chuck jaws are tall, plus 1/8 inch. More if you cut things off crooked! Face one end nicely. Flip the work and face the other end. If the bore is larger than the hole in the chuck, use some expendable packing between the chuck face and the work. It MUST be flat! Mark the shaft you're working in some indelible way (prick punch, file mark, whatever turns you on) by the jaw you marked earlier. This lets you put the piece back in the chuck the same way time after time.
  Drill through the piece of shafting, using care not to hit the chuck if the drill is larger than the chuck hole. Don't hit the spindle with the drill. Remove a much of the waste as possible, while leaving enough material for final boring. Bore to final size, keeping track of where the boring bit is and where the chuck is. Finish up with several passes with the tool at the same setting. The boring bar will deflect a little, these passes take off a tiny bit each time, until all the boring bar spring has been eliminated. Use that stop rod, the idea here is to save money, not to buy a new chuck ;-) Cut a small taper at the entrance to the bore at about 45 degrees, just to let you slide work into the bore easily. The work should press nicely into the bore with no shake, just a nice firm sliding fit.
  You're almost there. Remove the lovely accurate tube you just made, with the ID nicely concentric with the spindle centerline, and cut one slit lengthwise opposite of your witness mark, so that when remounted, the slit will be between the two jaws you didn't mark. Deburr the slit on the ID. A triangular file or small hook tool made from drill rod will work here should you not have one of those nice $40 USD interior deburring tools. No, I don't have one either. Deburr the rear end of the bore, and break any sharp edges. Remount the collet gently in the chuck with the witness marks aligned, firmly against the chuck face, with that little taper you cut facing out, insert the work, and snug up the chuck. If you've done it right, you'll have the ability to mount and unmount the collet and work within half a thou time after time. The saw kerf allows the chuck to compress the collet by a thou or so, giving a good grip on the work.
  WARNING: If you retrue your jaws for some diameter other than the one you used to true the jaws before you made the collets, you will loose accuracy! On the Taig, you could reserve one set of jaws for use with these collets only, and never recut them. The neat thing is that there is no requirement that the jaws be dead on at all diameters, you bore the ID after turning the OD, so if the lathe and chuck don't change, the collets stay OK. There is no requirement (or guarantee) that the ID and OD are concentric, although they will be pretty close unless your chuck is really trashed, badly trued, or has a damaged spot in the scroll. If you have a lot of this work to do, I'd suggest getting a chuck with steel jaws and reserving it for use with these collets. I don't know if the Taig soft jaws will wear enough to make your collets unusably inaccurate over time. Even if you put a nice finish on the collet OD, the other work done in the lathe will sooner or later chew up the faces of the soft jaws enough to require retruing. If you always retrue at the same diameter this shouldn't pose a problem as far as collet accuracy over time goes, and is certainly cheaper than buying a second chuck.
  As the Taig jaws aren't removable in the sense of a standard three jaw chuck, I've avoided referring to "Jaw #1." If you read books that specify making a mark by Jaw 1, simply read this to mean the jaw you marked.
  Decide this is pretty neat and make a full set by 64ths covering an inch or so, then get back to reason you made the first collet. Wonder why you made all those collets that you have never used rather than making them as needed :-) --Stan Stocker.
May 21st, 2001
(On combining two Taig beds to make one longer one) I have suceeded in unscrewing the top from the "extrusion". Of the five screws, I was successful with four. The fifth I had to drill out the head, then the "extrusion" or aluminum channel with the cement came off along with the foot. This was excellent as I will be able to reassemble having the foot partially under both original and extension channels. The top now butts up almost perfect to each other. My job as we speak is to tap new holes in bottom of the top piece to screw it back to the foot and channel. I will send photos. It looks like it will make a nice extension for turning longer pieces. I am really suprised Taig does not sell a longer version. -- Tom Cummings
April 27th, 2001
About 6 months ago I polled subscribers to the Taigtools yahoogroup about their most/least favorite/useful Taig accessories, here are the belated results:
(let me know what your list is and I'll update this over time)

Most Useful
1. #1030 4 jaw chuck
2. #1170 toolpost (extra toolposts especially)
3. #1132 blank arbor
Least Useful
1. #1026 depth stop
2. #1036 faceplate angle bracket set
Several have noted that treadmill motor requires 6 1/2 x 2 1/2 bracket... which is hard to find. 7 1/2 is easy to find.Many have cut in half and rejoined halves with 6 1/2 in space between upright portions of bracket. I found that 7 1/2 in bracket can be bent to form 6 1/2 in bracket.. just bend ends in at place where bracket makes 90 deg bend, then bent upper half of upright section back to make it perpendicular to base... mess around with it to make gap between uprights 6 1/2 in... pretty easy... 30 min job.-- Dave Robertson
Here's some description of my large spindle pulley (picture is on picture page) pulled from an email I wrote a while back: By my measurement, the stock pulley has diameters of .758, 1.055, 1.352, 1.650, 1.946 and 2.244 inches. That's the overall diameter of the steps that the groove is machined into. The steps are .140 wide. I sized my spindle pulley for a low speed of 300 rpm and a constant center distance. I came up with steps of 3.162, 3.422, 3.665, 3.894, 4.109 and 4.312 inches. My Basic program said this would result in speeds of 303, 443, 599, 777, 981 and 1224 rpm with the 1725 rpm spindle motor. I notice that recent pulleys have two groups of three steps, with the setscrew in the middle. Mine has the setscrew at the large end and a continuous series of steps. I've never had a problem with the pulley slipping at all. And my spindle pulley was a "shrink fit" on the spindle--I needed to heat it a little to get it on, and it doesn't have a setscrew. Never had any problem with it slipping either. Unfortunately, I've lost the drawing I did of the v-groove itself, but what I actually did was just grind a lathe bit until it gave a good fit in the existing v-groove. --Randy Gordon-Gilmore
The compound is marginal, at best, but I've found a good way to keep it from squirreling around. Instead of putting paper underneath, clean the mating areas well to remove oils, etc, then use a layer of Saran wrap. Back in my misspent youth I went to gunsmithing school and plastic wrap was used between the steel blocks in the barrel vise and the barrel itself to get a grip when removing the barrel from the action. (A tough job to say the least!) Plastic wrap seems compressable and adhesive both. Worked well for me. --Andy Moe

March 27th, 2001
I was reading some back postings on the Taigtools Yahoogroup site and found several folks wanting to find someone to bore out their Taig pulley to 5/8 inches for the treadmill motors currently being shipped from Surplus City. Again I used the old 1/4" shank carbide routerbit held in the tool post. I bored about 1 1/4" deep and took .030 cuts on all but the final cuts. With this depth of cut I needed to repeat-pass twice to clean up the hole and then it was within one .001 for the hole's length. Final passes were .010" and .005" and each required only one repeat pass to clean up the hole. The finish is superb. I made a .125 deep recess cut on the face of my three-jaw to allow me to hold the pulley wide-end-out. I have been in hog heaven grinding HSS routerbits into boring bars. They really do a fine job... this carbide unit just happened to be in the tool post this evening. So, if anybody asks you about pulley-boring, tell them they can do it themselves with a little effort. Warn them not to bore through. As you know, there ain't enough metal on the little step at the end. --Andy Moe
(On assembling the lathe) I had to put together a lathe for a customer recently and found the following areas where you need to pay special attention:
1. eccentric needs deburring on both ends
2. clamp eccentric on thick wall, if the thin wall is clamped it can cause binding in the handwheel.
3. deburr hole in rack slot, inside the slot (easy with a cogsdill clothespin tool)
4. deburr rack threaded hole
5. crosslide screw nut mounting hole needs reaming and deburring to .375 due to thickness of anodizing.
--Nick Carter

March 1st, 2001
(On making custom WW closers for the Taig) You probably already know this, but Pat Cavenaugh (Clock Doktor) has WW drawbars and will custom cut them to desired length. Also has taps and dies for WW. His web site is: http://www.open.org/~clockdok/ -David Robertson
(On removing the crosslide screw dial) I heated the dial with a pinpoint propane flame (gas soldering/brazing torch) until the leadscrew blued, then turned off the heat. The dial screwed off beautifully :). - Alexander J. Newman
(On where to buy 3M belts other than Taig) Kaman not only carry's them (3M belts)but they had 4 in stock and were less then 3 miles from home. Here is the Kaman Part number for the Taig Mill belt in case anyone is interested. You can order stuff online from them as well. http://www.kamandirect.com/ Price $7.46 ($10.00 min per order) Kaman Part # GAT3M315 Manufacturer Part # 89010315 KITSKU 400005387067 UPC Code 072053266191 Manufacturer Alt Part # 89010315 Description 3M315_POLYFLEX BELT Manufacturer GATES RUBBER COMPANY For assistance, call customer service at 1-888-235-3550. -- Regards, Brian J. Fisher
(On Trimming Shell Cases) As far as trimming cases, I still do it the slow way, chuck them in the 3 jaw, figure out how much needs to be taken off the first case, then run the bit up to the face of the case, power off. Then I use a feeler gauge the distance I need to trim to space the depth stop. Once set, its power up, trim, hold a countersink by hand to trim the inside of the neck, and use a file to clean up the outside burr, this done while the machine spins down. I did progress into getting a lee case trimmer cutter, which fits in the mandrel blank I bored to 1/2". The part I need to work on is making a case holder for the tail stock, internal mandrels for each caliber and a stop on the tail stock. With this set up it will be much faster. I know lee makes an inexspensive 3 jaw chuck for their zip trim that will hold the case base, so I need to get one of these, and adapt it to the tailstock.
-Paul Hail

Old Tips
Heres the scoop on belts. They are made by Gates, the 3M is the width in MM the number after the 3M is the length in MM. Kaman Industrial Technologies Corp. 1820 Prairie Rd. Eugene, OR 541-689-6413 is the local Gates distributer, the belts are $6.20 and there is a $10 minimum. I had to order 2 and they are on their way from Kentucky and will be here in about 5 days. (Kaman has distribution centers all over the US)-Guy Zattau
Nick, After assembling the Taig from the ground up, I can share with you several different techniques that I used, one I found the Taig to be a great machine for the money, but it lacks in many areas, I said to my self "Now why did they do that?" for example the carriage gear is held on by a simple "G" clip and even though I have intention of replacing it with a leadscrew, I cut a grove in it at the end that the offset bushing and splines contact the gear rack, this stoped the clip from slipping off, I found it necessary to blueprint the whole machine and this is what I did:
I found that the crossslide stuck in certain positions so I took it apart and block sanded the brass gib then contoured sanded with 600 grit the contact surface that the crosslide makes contact to help get rid of milling marks and opened the brass leadscrew nut very slightly, then had to scrap the hole that the leadscrew nut sat into since it had hard anodize matter in and did not allowed the nut to sit flat, I saw that the back side edge sat too close to the alumin. carrage when the lock screws were tightened to the gib, so I had to sand down the flat to allow the cross slide to move freely then lube the whole with synthetic grease that I swear by, this allowed the crosslide to move buttery smooth after carefully adjusted the gibs. My attention then turned to the carriage, even after "the lapping in process" I noticed that it was not even close to smooth operation, the problem was partly in the gear rack, the rack is held on the alumin. track with only one bolt??? the rear of the rack near the headstock seemed to be rased up and caused more friction with the gear rack, so I drilled another hole and placed another hold down screw, but this did not allow the rack to turn the length smoothly so I lapped the gear teeth with a diamond hone this took out some damage areas in the teeth. Again the gibs were block sanded, and the underside of the carriage was contoured sanded to make smoother, and greased, the assembly could not be better.
I had heard a lot about mounting the lathe on some kind of bed, I wanted something that was super strong, energy absorbing and allowed me to mount whatever I may need in the future, so I opted for a 2 inch thick 6061-T6 alumin. plate that is 3 inches larger than the lathe in all directions after careful drilling and countersinking, the lathe was mounted to the bed, I have made an adjustable snubber for the front of the lathe that sits a few thousands below I am fully aware that the front of the bed should not be clamped to the table in fear of distortion, but the snubber does not "touch it" this was done with a 1/4x20 bolt with nuts that can adjust the height and plastic tip on the contact end.
The current project that I am working on, I have not seen in any of the posts and that is the lever tailstock, I have, like many others have replaced all the Allen screws, with knobs and the like, but miss the graduated drilling that most other machines have, so I took my crosslide that I ordered extra, and am mounting it between the base alumin. block (after milling off the dovetail) and the lever mounted drilling block that holds the drill chuck. I have measured the amount of travel and it is a nice 3.30 inches aprox. and allows ether lever feed or crank feed. I would love to post pictures, but have not had luck getting to them when they are loaded to a file, I will keep trying. I have many other projects lined up for this micro-lathe and would enjoy sharing if you like. Also if you are interested in jewelry making C.N.C milling, mold making, metal techniques for soft metal, casting and the like I have a great e-group that is newly formed and there are some very knowledge able people called Metalmonkees@egroups.com we are working for new members but there is not another group like it, discussion includes Rhino 3D software, CAD/CAM and any other on topic discussion, feel free to contact me or look us up. I am hell bent and determined to convert my Taig Lathe to C.N.C. Best Regards, Christopher DiCintio
(Note from Nick: Chris is a watch guy and I'm sure his idea of sanding is a lot more precise than most of ours - don't ever do anything to your lathe ways to ruin their flatness - indesciminate sanding or grinding of the components will ruin your lathe.)
One easy modification you might like to try..... If you swap the compound slide with its leadscrew and nut to the cross-slide position ( you have to drill a hole for the nut in the saddle) You get more useable travel in front of the lathe axis. Also the cross-slide travels with the handwheel,(I like the feel of this better).
-Owen
I've made quite a few mods to the lathe to make it friendlier to me. E.G., I added a second brass knob to the cross slide and fore-aft (terminology?) slide knob. MUCH easier to control. The ones on the unit are a little shorter than the after market ones and that's good. You can easily find the longer one to grab and twirl it fast but when you want precise control, the second one really helps by gripping both at the same time. Just like on a "real" lathe. I'm sure you know what I mean. I replaced those puny hard to use set screws on the tool holders with 10-32 socket heads then got a LONG socket head , put a spacer under it so as to get it out of that damn well that fills up with chips, and now it's above the screws that hold the tool bit. I no longer have to get sharp objects to clean out the tool bit holder screw socket AND you need just one tool to work on the tool bits and holder instead of 2 different ones. I replaced those 4 sided nuts that go into the "Tee" slots with regular flat six sided nuts. They slide in with no need to perfectly align them with the slot which I found frustrating. I replaced all the socket headed screws that hold the tail stock, slide stop, friction on the main slide, etc with 3 sided plastic knobs. Fewer tools and much faster! I've punched numbers 1,2,3,4 on the 4 jawed chuck and marked the jaws too for quick reference when centering and reassembling the chuck. Using ½" copper pipe, a brass nut, 10-32 cap head screw and a pipe cap, I made a great very comfortable tail stock handle extension that is removable. I soldered the nut to the pipe and put a set screw in it. I doubled the length of the handle and it's being round sure helps. That short square edged thing really hurts when doing real drilling.
-Bob Pinkus
Here is an idea I came up with to give the Taig Micro Lathe a power/manual fine feed and still incorporate the faster rack and pinion carriage of the stock Taig. The idea uses "speed nuts" from Lee Valley Tools to allow lead screw feed when needed, but disengagement when not required. The speed nuts cost $7.00 US plus shipping for 4 of them, you need two. Mount a "lead screw" made out of 1/4" 20 TPI all thread ( I used brass) to the side of the aluminum bed. I used aluminum angle iron for the bearing brackets similar to the set up on http://www.pioneer.net/~felice/taig6.jpg Make the lead screw long enough for the hand wheel on the end as in the above link Try to keep the lead screw as high up and close to the dovetail way of the bed in order to keep it as chip free as possible. Keep in mind the tailstock clamping method when figuring this out. After determining where the leadscrew is going to interact with the carriage, grind out the necessary material to allow the the lead screw to pass through the carriage. Assemble the whole thing with a speed nut and 3/8" flat washer on each side of the carriage. With the carriage located in the center of the bed, epoxy the flat washers against the carriage using the speed nuts engaged to hold the flat washers in place, take care not to get epoxy on the threads or the speed nuts. Depending on the location of the lead screw, you may have to grind a flat spot on the washers to clear the bed. The idea of the flat washer is to provide a full 360 degree contact area for the speed nut engagement. Find a small spring to fit over the pinion shaft of the carriage wheel, the idea being that to use the carriage wheel you will have to push it in to engage the rack, the spring will disengage for lead screw use. The rack and pinion MUST be disenagaged for this to work, at least on my lathe. To use the lead screw, just slide the speed nut up against the carriage until it is squared off, and then turn the leadscrew hand wheel. The speed nuts do to their design just slide until they hit an obstruction, they then square off and engage...neat!!!!! The speed nuts, normally reside at each end of the lead screw when not in use. I plan to power the lead screw with a 12volt motor (maybe HO train?) and use a cheap model train transformer to give me variable feed speed plus reverse. I think that you could machine a groove in the hand wheel and turn it into the pulley(maybe an "O" ring for a belt?)
-Paul Currie
As for tips, tricks, etc: The biggest single improvement was to replace the locking cap screw on the base of the tail stock with a home made brass screw with a handle attached. BIG time saver! Buying a good dial indicator and magnetic holder is a very worth while investment. That immediately improved the accuracy of my work. When making a complex part, make a drawing and write down, in order (1, 2, 3, etc.), the steps to machine it. That way there's less chance of machining away a reference plane or losing concentricity (School-of Hard-Knocks lesson #113!!) Rudy Kouhoupt's first book of ideas (advertised in Home Shop Machinist) is a gold mine of information for anyone working with equipment in the Taig, Sherline, etc. size range. I think I've read it cover-to-cover a half dozen times and learn something new everytime. His writing, diagrams and photos are clear and I like his approach to his work. Highly recommended. Guy Lautards Bedside Readers are another great source of ideas. I've also ordered several sets of plans from him. They're real idea generators...and his writing style is real laid back!! Also recommended. Learn from your mistakes. Sometimes you have to learn several times! (School-of Hard-Knocks lesson #114!!) I keep three plastic stacking bins on my bench for small scrap pieces of brass, aluminium and steel. It's amazing how often they contain the raw material for that one small part. Beats cutting a fresh piece off your bar stock. A good source for small flywheels are old cast iron casters. There's a junk shop here where I've picked up wheels from 2" to 8" in diameter. I have a friend in a machine shop who trued them up for me. I had them sand blasted and just bush them to the correct shaft size. Old valve handles look like they'd work well too. And you can find those in aluminium and brass. Although my friend had to charge me for the machining, he offset the cost by bringing me a box of cut-offs. Cut-offs from a regular machine shop are full size raw material to someone like myself!!
-Laurie Keating
"My question is this: I have been unable to clamp the compound slide tool rest effectively to the cross-slide. Do you have any suggestions for me to clamp this more securely?"
Not an uncommon problem.
1. Taig suggests that you put a piece of typing paper (cut to size) between the compound and the slide to stop the slipping.
2. Often it's hard to tighten the screw enough, get a long t-handled hex key and use that instead.
3. You may be taking too deep a cut as well.
4. make sure all grease and oil is off the surfaces - you can always wipe with rubbing alcohol or some such solvent, also make sure there are no chips or burs getting in the way.
From Taig Tools:
Pulley dimensions on a Gates 3m Belt should be 60 degrees included and .110 top width.
-Paul Currie
I think that there is a good article on the 2mm web site about a form of freehand turning on small lathes.Basically you mount your tools on small pedestals with wide bases, and these pedestals are placed on a flat metal base mounted on the bed of the lathe. The tools should, obviously, be arranged to be at centre height. Then you turn your items by moving the tools on their pedestals by hand. I was shown this method many years ago by members of the 2mm Society at an exhibition in London. It was remarkably easy to achieve quite complex shapes once you had overcome your fears that the tools would possibly fly off at high speed :-). Basically, it's not all that different from turning with watchmakers hand tools, but possibly a bit more controllable for the less experienced.
Neat tip, this would work well on the Taig lathe also since it has a dead flat top! On the Taig though, I'd recommend using collets, less chance of eating fingers.
-Jim Eckman
I finally ordered, received, mounted a variable speed motor from the surplus center on my taig lathe and it works great. I got tried of the v-belt slipping so I mounted two cogged pulleys with a cogged belt, no more slipping. I can run the lathe from almost 0 to 2300 rpm. I used a 12 tooth sheave on the motor and a 48 tooth sheave on the lathe.
-Michael Tucker
Some Taig Mill Modifications
Have been experimenting with some minor mods to extend the Z-axis capability of the mill, having been frustrated on occasions at limited Z capacity when using the Jacobs chuck/arbor. I noticed that the Z-axis feed nut seems to be tapped into the bottom of the headstock saddle block - reversing the saddle block effectively gives you a couple of inces of extra height to play with.
The mods go as follows:
- Disassemble the z-axis leadscrew clamp, remove headstock, remove the headstock saddle block; unbolt the 4 10-32 holes fixing the small section of "lathe bed" that the headstock clamps onto.
- Drill/tap 2 extra 10-32 holes in the headstock saddle block, to allow the small section of "lathe bed" to be clamped at the tapped end of the block. It will overhang about 1/4", but this is not a problem.
- Re-fit the headstock saddle block "upside down" (tapped hole at the top), and re-assemble the other components. The leadscrew clamp can also be positioned so that only about 1/2 of it clamps the vertical slide, adding a little more Z height. (It also struck me that this top clamp could be usefully shortened to about 3/4" instead of the standard 1.5" without the mechanical properties suffering very much, but haven't attempted that yet, particularly as I haven't investigated the bearing construction & whether doing it would actually release any further usable screw length.).
The result of these mods on my machine is that the max nose-to-table height increases to about 6.5" and the max Z travel increases to about 5.75".
I guess I could get even more height by using your trick of shifting the main slideway up a row of bolt holes - the main reason I haven't done that yet is that it is sometimes convenient to work on thin pieces clamped directly to the table, using a short cutter in a collet.
Any reasons you know of why the Z-axis leadscrew nut was tapped at the bottom of the headstock block in the first place? Seems to make no mechanical difference (or sense) to me, and reversing it certainly seems to work just fine so far.
Since sending the last message on this subject, this evening I investigated the Z leadscrew clamp further & have successfully reduced it to 3/4" long, effectively releasing 3/4" of useful leadscrew length. Quite easy to do - dismantle the bearing & then hacksaw off the bottom 3/4" of the extrusion, drill/tap a new hole for the 10-32 clamping screw, re-assemble & you're done. Result is that I now have 6.75" travel and 6.75" nose-to-table height. So there is scope with this arrangement to move the clamp off the end of the Z slideway onto a suitable bracket mounted above the slideway somehow - which would allow the saddle to travel the full length of the slideway.
In fact, if you were to dispense with the existing extrusion-based clamp & make up a bracket similar to the ones used for the X and Y screws, you would gain even more usable screw length - about another 1/2" I think - but that may take me another evening or so!
-From Tony Jeffree
NECESSARY LATHE TOOLING
- Buy a centre gauge and know how to use it.
- Buy a dial gauge and make mounting fixtures so that it can be used to check: 1 the run out on the part in the four jaw chuck from the head stock; 2 vertial alignment of the tail stock from the cross slide; 3 horizontal alignment of the tail stock from the cross slide.
- The mounting fixture for the dial gauge on the head stock can also be used to make sure that the tooling bar in the milling attachment is horizontal.
- Make a truing bar so that you can align the tail stock to the head stock.
LOW BUCK MILL TO DRILL CONVERSION
I used a 3/8" end mill holder with a #2 MT. It has a 3/8-16 thread for the draw bar which I filled in with a piece of all-thread that I drilled out the centre for a #10 machine screw. I then made a nut that fits into the space where the tang from the original chuck holder went. The nut is a piece of 1/2" drill rod 3/4" long and milled down on opposite sides to fit the width of the tang slot. A #10-32 tapped hole runs parrallel to the machined flats in the centre of the bar.
So to add the mill holder to the drill press just pop out the chuck holder insert the mill holder. Place the custom #10-32 nut in the tang slot and thread a #10-32 socket head cap screw up through the mill holder into the custom nut. You now have a draw bar that pushes the #2 MT mill holder into the socket by pushing against the 3/8-16 all-thread inside the mill holder while being treaded into the custom nut that is captured by the tang slot in the quill. Total cost $30, 1 hour machining.
LATHE TRUING BAR FOR TAIG LATHE
For that I decided to use 1" drill rod, (a truing bar is used to align the centre on the tail stock with the head stock). For my lathe the longest bar I can make is 7.5". You need a lathe chuck, a steady rest, #1 centre drill, a drill chuck, a dead centre for both the head stock and the tail stock, drill arbour for the head stock, arbour blank with 3/8-24 threads and a tool bit ground so that you can make a 30 degree angled end cut in the bar, ( this tool will have to have enough relief so that you can get it into a round hole without it binding).
Make a dead centre for the head stock by threading the blank arbour onto the head stock drill arbour and machining it to a 60 degree point. Turn the OD of the new dead centre down so that your chucks will fit over it. That way you can turn between centres when you get a lathe dog. Grind two wrench flats on the end near the drill arbour so that you can get the centre on and off.
1. Cut two pieces of 1" drill rod, one 7.5" long and the other 1.5" long. Chuck the shot bar with just an inch or so protruding.
2. Line up the steady rest with the bar.
3. Move the steady rest down the bed and chuck the long bar with only the minimum purchase necessary for the chuck to turn the bar. The bar should now be held by a minimum at the chuck and the other end should be rotating in the steady rest. Adjust the steady rest until you get a close sliding fit between the rod and the rest, you should notice some resistance to turing the bar by hand initially. You now have a bar that is rotating inside it's outer diamerter so the centre of the bar is concentric with the centre of rotation. The chuck end of the bar is rotating about the chuck centre which is not likely concentric with the bar.
4. Face both ends of the bar. Turn bar around and drill other end.
5. Try to get the tail stock as close to the centre of the bar as possible and use your centre drill to start the hole for the facing operation. Drill the hole so that the straight part of the bit enters the bar for about 1/4". You will not be using the centre drill hole to align the bar because you do not know that the tail stock is aligned with the head stock. You are using a centre drill because it is not very long and will give you a good hole to start the facing operation. You will be taking a 30 degree internal facing cut against the straight part of the centre drilled hole. Turn bar around and drill other end.
6. Set up the tool bit that you just ground so that you are cutting at 30 degrees from the centre of the bar. Check the angle of the hole with your centre gauge, (that little piece of metal that looks like a small arrow about 1.5" long with a bunch of criptic numbers on it. All of the notches and points on the centre gauge are 60 degrees.) adjust the facing cut so that you are getting a 60 degree included angle. Keep cutting until you have almost reached the angled part of the centre drilled hole. You have now made a 60 degree included angle cut that will fit your dead centres and is exactly concentric with the OD of the bar. This is because you used a single point turing tool on a work piece that was turing inside it's own OD. Turn bar around and face other end.
7. Set the truing bar between centres and get out your dial gauge. Mount the dial gauge to the cross slide so that it can be held both vertically and hoizontially at the centre of the bar. Move the carriage along the bar and adjust the tail stock until the delta on the gauge is as close to zero as you can get it. This will mean moving the tail sock side ways for the horizontal adjustment or either shimming the tail stock or head stock for the vertical adjustment.
I found that it was necessary to put a shim between the tail stock and the lathe bed, this was because the centre of the tail stock was lower than the head stock. If the reverse had been true I would have shimmed the head stock.
A less expensive way to drill large holes. Machine the OD of a #1 to #2 MT sleeve down to .5" except for the first inch or so of the sleeve, other wise you will break through into the ID of the taper. The tang of the sleeve will have to be modified so that the hand lever of the tail stock drill will work with it. Now when I need to drill larger holes than my 1/8" Jacobs will do I just pop a bit with a #1 MT ,that I got from the used bin at the local machine tool outlet, into the turned down sleeve. It was more work than purchasing a 3/8" Jacobs but less than half the price.
I found that when I went to modify a new set of soft jaws for the 3 jaw chuck I found that there was no locating pin to hold the jaws radially. I do not know if this was an over site by the factory or if you are supposed to make them your self. The blind holes in both jaws and the chuck are there to take 5/32" by .350" long dowels. In either case I could not find any info in the literature I have on my lathe or on the web. So I made my own and now feel a lot better about swapping different machined soft jaws and not having to align true them each time I put them on. I also numbered each set from one to three and also numbered the position of each on the chuck body. I also numbered the steel part of the jaws so that if and when I ever take it apart all of the pieces will go back in the same place.
The tips above are from Richard Burchill
A piece of 3/4 angle drilled on one leg for a 10-32 screw & square nut, and milled to center will make a fine woodturning rest for the Taig.
I'm having a ball with my Taig lathe, but one thing has continually frustrated me. The nuts for the T-slots keep slipping crossways when I try to mount an accessory. The milling attachment is especially troublesome, as it mounts from the back side of the lathe and I can't see what I'm doing. The solution was simple but effective. I made more user-friendly T-nuts.
I cut down some 1/8" x ½" steel flat to 3/8"x3/4" and put a 45-degree point on one end; I drilled/tapped a 10-32 hole in the other, and presto! - a boat-shaped T-nut. Now I can mount the accessories by feel. Slip the point into the slot and the rest of the nut has no choice but to follow.
-Dave Goodfellow
I found the suggestion of having lower speeds a must, so I took a piece of ~ 3 1/2" dia al, and made a new pulley, the smallest size is the same as the larg est on the stock pulley, and there are 4 steps. It was difficult to hold the form tool in the tool holder, but odd angles and creative shimming seemed to w ork. I also have the motor mounted to move fore and aft, so I can use the lar ge small set up for motor rpm of 1750, which seems about as high as I need to go. I haven't worked out what the low speed is, but probably around 200 rpm, which really helps for work pieces over 1" in dia.
I had a few 1/4" by 4" screws threaded full length, and after re-working the h eads, the make great T bolts, for my boring bar holder, or clamping down whate ver else. I made a 1/2" endmill holder out of the blank arbor I ordered, and found that clamping the arbor to the cross slide with the 1/4" bolt, and runni ng a 1/2" carbide burr to make two flats for a 7/8" wrench really is helpful. If I had been thoughtful enough to remember I had reduced the nominal 1" diam eter of the arbor before removing 1/16" on each side for the trued diameter, t he flats would really be 7/8", but that's for next time. I've found the stand ard tool holder can be used for limited amounts of milling by clamping small p ieces in it, and taking light cuts. I recently did some milling by using a se t of adjustable paralels on either side of the two 1/4" bolts, and clamped dow n with a top plate. The forward parrallel set the height of the workpiece, wh ile the one on the back side gave a level surface for the top plate.
I like the 4 jaw juck, it allows the holding of non round shapes, and allows a ccurate and solid mounting of round pieces. The one bugger is having to dial in runout every time a piece is mounted. I found that a 1/4" travel indicator is small enough to be mounted to the cross slide, but running a 1/4" bolt thr ough a stand off which was made from 3/4" dia material, and cut to a length to center the height of the indicator. I don't know if that description made se nse, but a dwg easily explains it. A last word indicator mounted in the drill chuck off the tail stock is also a good meathod, but I like the indicator for quick and dirty centered +- .001" work. I have also mounted the 1/4" indicat or in the tool holder, by clamping the mounting stub by a set screw, but the c enter height was off.
-Paul Hail (last three tips)
To speed truing work in the four jaw chuck mark the number of each jaw on the body of the four jaw chuck, using either number stamps, prick punches or an engraving tool. The jaws are hardened and should not be stamped, but could be engraved on the side. This will aid reassembly after cleaning.
If you have access to a dividing head, make an index plate that mounts on the pulley between the pulley and headstock. A simple bar of aluminum, slotted for adjustment bolts to the headstock, and a screw mates with the holes in the index plate. Rows of 60 and 50 holes are very useful. The carriage handwheel can then be given 60 divisions, corresponding with .01 inch of travel. The plate also functions as a spindle lock, when you can't seem to get the chuck off.
After you have accidentally screwed the crosslide off for the thousandth time, make a scribe mark on the carriage just before the limit of travel is reached, so you don't ever do it again.
If you need to drill a deep hole, put the tailstock in front of the carriage and clamp the tailstock to the bed lightly so you can use the carriage to push the tailstock towards the chuck.
I did talk to the guys at Taig (at length since they like to offer help) about a couple of subjects. I needed to be able to feed some long 3/8" stock through the head stock, but it wouldn't fit. Taig said it could be opened up safely to this diameter, so I bought a brand new 23/64" drill bit and a 3/8" and 25/64" reamer and opened the spindle bore up. Lots of cutting oil and slow speed was used. I also bought a $5.00 reversing toggle switch from Surplus Center and was able to add a reverse direction to the motor Taig supplied for free. You must stop the motor before reversing, but I think this is best anyway. If anyone wants it, I can supply the wiring diagram for this switch/motor set-up since it wasn't very obvious on how to do. This makes for getting some very nice finishes, especially on wood. -Roger Petrella
I usually make model parts, replacement parts for tools and prototypes for work. I'm not a full time machinist so this isn't as much as you think. Recently I had to machine out a 2 piece small shell that was 0.90 thick. I used double sticky tape and two thin brass plates pressed against two edges and clamped onto the mill table. Double sticky tape is reasonably strong but sometimes the workpiece can twist. The brass plates prevent this and also make it easier to line up the part. - James Eckman
I stole a suggestion from a book called Shop Savvy and made a power feed from an electric screwdriver, a speed reduction adaptor for an electric drill to make it a screwdriver and a 5/16 driver for electric screw drivers. The adaptor I found has two speeds and they work very well for fine and medium finishes or when your tired of cranking the handles! -James Eckman
Most recently, I have obtained a Emco-Maier Compact-5/CNC. This is about the same scale as the Taig, but computer controlled, and somewhat more rigid. (Also a *lot* more expensive, even used.) At this point -- did I retire the Taig? No! It is used for preliminary work on one of the things that I produce in quantity. I saw off brass round stock to length in one of the $200 horizontal bandsaws.It then goes to the Taig, where I have machined a set of softjaws to precisely fit the workpiece, and serve as a length stop as well. In the Taig, I face it off cleanly, drill for tapping, countersink to champher, and start a 1/4-20 tap using the Taig. I then manually finish the tapping, and remove the workpiece from the Taig. It then goes onto a fixtue which I have made for the Compact-5, which holds it by the faced surface and the 1/4-20 thread. I hit the go button on that lathe (which is equipped with a turret), and as it is producing the finished dimensions of the part, I turn to the Taig, and prepare the next part. As it turns out, I can do the preliminary work on the Taig a bit faster than the CNC can do the more complicated operations (including external threading), so I can keep the CNC busy once the first piece is out of the TAIG.- Don Nichols
I used the 4-jaw independant chuck from the Taig to modify to make a proper 4-jaw for the CNC machine (it did not have one). - Don Nichols
If you want it to be stiffer, take the bottom plate or "foot" off. Cut about 2" off the end towards the tail stock and screw the big piece back on. Now take the little piece and screw it on the tail stock end. (you will have to switch the screws around)This will make it stiffer on your mounting plate, (or board). -Duane Sherman.
You have to be careful with the amount of tension that you put onto the belt drive if you are using a seperate motor. The aluminium pulleys lubricate the thin belt quite well and, in order to eliminate slip, I tightened the belt until I realized that I had moved the heastock out of alignement. I conluded that, If you are using a standalone motor, then you need to have compression spar between the motor and headstock housing to tension the belt. Alternatively, use the motor from a Sherline setup. Sherline sells a belt driven reduction gear and this is a really useful accessory for the Taig lathe as you can get torque at low revs and turn large diameter work. By the way, I have a Sherline mill and use the Taig collet set in it. You just turn an eigth of an inch of the back of the Taig collet nut and you can then use on the Taig lathe and the Sherline mill! The Taig lathe clearly was designed to use a threaded feed drive ..... there is a large apron on the "driver's" side of the carraige. One should use an ACME thread for the drive rod, this is commonly available on a car scissor jack. If you can find a fine thread, with its pitch a fraction of 16tpi, then you can use the thread cutting kit from Sherline. I have my eye on my Volvo jack at the moment!! -Thomas Roach
I made many cutting tools and gouges for free-hand wood turning. By the way, some of your customers might want to know how to heat-treat carbon steels. The only thing you need is a thermometer which can measure up to 200C. I use our kitchen cook stove as a heating device. Remove the heating element. Line the drip bowl with aluminum foil including the outer chrome ring so it will not discolor. Then, cut a small hole on the foil to plug in the heater element. Use the bottom of a pot to make a dome shaped foil cover with a rim. Place all the tool bits on the heater. Put the cover on top and secure the rim with dinner knives. Turn on the power. The temperature is judged by color: dull red is about 600, bright red 700, yellow 800C. When they reach 800, drop them into a pot of cold water. The whole process takes about 5 minutes. waite till the heater element is cold, return the tools to the heater and cover. Place the bulb end of the thermometer inside. Gradually heat it up to 150C. Turn on the power only 1 to 2 seconds at a time. Never let it over shoot beyond 180. Stress relieve at 150C for 20 to 30 minutes. This heat-treatment isa for plain carbon steels (about 1% carbon). For high speed steels, you need to heat it to 900C and tempered at 200 to 250C. I shape my tools using hammers and files and sharpen them before hardening. The trick is using aluminum foil as a reflective insulation. -David Tseng
I have my Taig mounted on a 2" thick aluminum block on the current bench, which puts its base at 43". After a couple of years with the Taig, I converted the carriage drive to a screw. I took off the carriage and drilled and reamed the hole that the pinion ran in, to take a cylinder of Oilite material, which I cross drilled and threaded 1/4-20. I mounted a piece of 1/4-20 allthread onto the side of the bed with aluminum angle brackets (had to use a masonry bit to drill through the bed--I hadn't realized it was filled with concrete!), running in little flanged ball bearings. I don't mind the cranking back and forth--for me it was a very acceptable tradeoff for the control I got. I made a rocker toolpost with the help of a machinist at a place I used to work. It is pretty much like the stock toolpost, except bigger in cross-section, and uses a big Woodruff key for the rocker. That way, I don't have to shim toolbits. (The circular seat for the Woodruff key is what the machinist did on the CNC mill at work.) On the other side of the post, I drilled through for a little boring bar. (Years ago, there was a guy who advertised in "Home Shop Machinist" that sold little carbide-insert turning and boring bits. I have one of the LH turning bits and a boring bar, and enough insert material to last a while.) I took a big pan, notched the flange at the middle of the long sides and bent and soldered it up, to give a backstop as well as bottom tray. I notched the bottom to fit around the mounting block. That way, it goes all the way to the end of the headstock, and I can slide it off the lathe for cleaning. I don't use coolant, and just brush on lubricant, so it catches swarf more than anything, but is very nice to have.
I also made a larger step pulley for the Taig--it was turning *way* to fast for my liking. I use the standard motor pulley, and put my pulley on the spindle. The top end of the range is, I think, around 1500 rpm. Even turning mostly aluminum and brass, I'm happy with the lowered range (and the bottom end is a lot better for parting off!) -Randy Gordon-Gilmore
How to Replace Headstock Shaft or Bearings
1. get a brass punch (or piece of round stock) 3/8" in diameter.
2. remove headstock from bed
3. remove two screws on either side of headstock
4. separate halves of headstock extrusion
5. loosen setscrew on pulley
6. press shaft off pulley using brass punch from pulley end in arbor press. Never use a hammer!!!! If you only need to remove the pulley but don't have an arbor press, use a small gear puller.
7. remove retaining ring w/ appropriate retaining ring pliers
8. press shaft out of bearing/spacer assembly supporting bearing race as fully as possible (wearing safety goggles), press w/ brass punch at pulley end of shaft. This took a bit of force but my ratchet press of unknown pressing capacity handled it easily.
9. Replace in reverse order
I first started with an arbor for a #.0" X 1/16" metal cut off wheel (Harbor Freight # 1103), working with no "extra" assests to be spending on a Taig blank arbor, I choose a $.65 3/4 X 16 thread nut, I faced it off and then brazed a 1.0" piece of CRS about .75" long.....then faced that and center drilled it, tapped for 10-32. I then turned it down to .375" for the hole diameter of he grinding wheel,but just at .060" so it would not be thicker than the 1/16" of the wheel. I then made a flange washer out of some bronze I had sitting around (actually it was the top of a sprue from a bronze cast!) I then put a cupped edge on it so it would only grab the blade on its circumference, drilled to pass the 10- 32 through it and boy does it do a job of cutting! The wheels last a good long time, and when they are to small to turn on the Taig, I remount them onto an 1/8" mandrel for the flex shaft! I next made an arbor for 4.0".032 X 1/2 260 tooth saw blades .... of which I have a goodly supply from a company that I used to work for: they were used in brass and bronze cutting, but have plenty of life left in them for cutting aluminum. The same process for these blades but I found it easier to create the 1/2" "lip" they sit on first then cut it off to the .030" "nder size" they are fine with just the friction fit tightening the 10-32 onto the flange washer. I have also made a fly cutter, using my $.65 nuts, and .750 stainless for the mounting of the cutter. -Phil Jaster
To create a table saw, I looked into the scrap box, and saw a nice pice that was 1) Thick for stability, and 2) had a "lip" to meet the front edge of the cross feed table. I located to holes to mount it down to the table.......I use 1/4-20 carriage bolts for this: grinding the round top thin enough to pass into the TEE slot, this involves five different areas of the 1/4-20: creating to flats the width of the TEE, cutting down the "square" to pass the TEE, and that flat of the (bottom) of the bolt, it does take time, but I have not worn out ONE of these YET, unlike the square 10-32 nuts Taig supplies. (I have also bored out the tool post to accept one of these).... .....from table mounting piece, which is Headstock in height, I simply mounted a 4.5" wide .250" thick piece of Aluminum for the table screwing it down with cap screws. The next process is one of danger: WARNING! BE CAREFUL! with the blade turning on the Taig, the cross feed locked and the carriage locked, I LOWERED THE TABLE CAREFULLY ONTO THE BLADE. a zero kerf such as it provides is not good for the blades, so I moved the carriage once again and gave it another cut, maybe .010" so there would be no rubbing of the blade. I have not yet made a sliding slot such as table saws have, but I will: to hold a piece of .125 X .500 3.0" length of brass. I choose the slat dimensions only due to the fact that I have a supply of the fore mentioned brass. -Phil Jaster
Hey, when you need a carbide cutter, and have no money: I went to my prior work "carpenter" and torched off the carbide tips from a 7 1/4" saw blade which had broken teeth! File off the excess brazing material.....now you have: 1) left cutters, 2) right cutters and 3) center cutters! my first mountings were on 1/4" brass stock (scrap, of course). I very carefully filed a square lip to hold the carbide on, the silver soldered it on, any sharpening needed is done with my diamond wheels (Harbor Freight or other companies). These do a great job for my micro turning that I do....an the price is right! I now braze them on, using what started out a 20 gauge square "brass" Jewelers wire, I pulled it down to 22 gauge and use regular flux with it! -Phil Jaster

Pen Turning Tips

If you turn pens in the metal mode, make sure you use a tool with a rounded profile, a tool with a point will leave marks in the wood or plastic than can be almost impossible to see until you finish sanding, then usually too late to do anything about. -Paul Currie
If you are using a double mandrel (don`t we all now) to turn both blanks at the same time, make sure that you apply only the mininum pressure required on the tailstock feed lever. The mechanical advantage is such you can bow the mandrel causing you to turn out of round pen barrels.- Paul Currie

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