[Dave Paine]

Last year Nate Bos posted a thread about making a tailstock tip-away.

http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f6/tailastock-tip-away-45198/

I thought this was a good idea. I knew it was only a matter of time until I would have some tasks which needed the tailstock to be removed. I have an extension for the bed, but the present lathe location does not have the room.

My recent vase projects needed the tailstock to be removed for the internal sanding. The tailstock is not too heavy, but replacing it is a pain. Hold the tailstock with one hand, hold the handle with the other, then find out the plate has slightly rotated and is not aligned with the slot between the rails. Lots of findling to get things aligned.

I thought about my lathe situation and decided a sled to move the tailstock to the back of the lathe stand should provide me adequate access to the headstock and tool rest.

For my lathe stand this was easy to make and only needed a few scraps/offcuts of wood.

The tailstock "parked" on the sled.

The tailstock moved to the back of the lathe stand. The track is just a piece of UHMW material I had laying around. I used this for the low friction properties.

I installed a large screw as a stop and also to hold down the sled in the forward position.

The sled has a groove routed to match the height and width of the UHMW materials.

The track. I added a piece of the same tile I have under the lathe, this time the brown side up, which slides better. As "Murphy" would have it the middle screw moved the track slightly, so yes there is a slight bend, it is not your eyes.

A close up of how I made the sled. I was originally going to do some fancy routing, then I realised the main item I needed was a groove to match the dimensions of the locking plate for the tailstock.

I then decided to glue three pieces together. The outer pieces were routed for the groove. The middle piece cut to the height to be less than the nut at the bottom of the locking plate.

I later added the left piece for the stop and lock down with the post screw.

All pieces just glued face-to-face, no need for fancy joints.

I used this for the later vase projects. I am very happy I made this, it is saving a lot of hassle for me.

Thanks for looking.

 

[duncsuss]

Nice job -- I've been thinking about making a hinged swing-away version, as my 1624 is on legs rather than bench-mounted.

I found UHMW spread out when I screwed through it, making the tablesaw sleds I built stick in the miter slots. (Now I make the strips a tad undersized and rely on the expansion to give a perfect fit in the slots.)

 

[Nate Bos]

looks great!

 

[Bob Willing]

That is really neat, I have the same bed and tail stock. This will be on my list of projects.

 

[Dave Paine]

That is really neat, I have the same bed and tail stock. This will be on my list of projects.

Nate Bos inspired me, although a few months before I got to my project. Happy if I can inspire someone else to a similar project. :icon_smile:

 

[DaveTTC]

Very cool idea