Gary Wooding and his Chester 12 x 36 Lathe

I note in Gary's article he cut tee slots in the top slide of his lathe. I have been considering this modification to my lathe but I'm concerned that it will weaken the cross side. Would Gary be able to share a rough sketch of the end view of his cross slide so I can get an idea of what others consider adequate. Any other comments would be welcome.

Cheers

Bill Pascoe

Australia

I have recently carried out a similar mod to my Asian lathe. There was a thread about it that I started a long while ago. Initially I was going to modify a Myford ML7 cross slide but eventually just milled slots in the original one. The story is told in one of my albums. I compared Mr. Myford's cross slide with my unslotted one and determined that there was very little difference, size-wise, so if the slots didn't weaken the Myford one, that would be good enough for me. I don't have the dimensions to hand, but if you're interested, I'll get them later.

John

An alternative is threaded holes. If you put one in each side in the thick bit it would probably cover most requirements. Then if desperate for a fixing in the middle you could make a bridge piece.

That's what I did for my ball turning jig. I keep socket set screws in the holes when not in use to keep the swarf out.

I will second tapped holes-but don't do what I did just drilled and tapped, I was in a hurry. Years later it is obvious that I should have put them on some sort of standard pattern, instead of measuring every time.

I did the mod some years ago and have lost the original drawings, but have re-constructed the attached by direct measurements, all shown in mm. See my album called Stuff. The actual slots are approx 160mm long.

Edited By Gary Wooding on 05/12/2015 11:19:34

I also drilled and tapped the cross slide. 4 holes on the top and three on the side, (I made an "L" shape plate).

I figured that if I had a crash, it would be better to damage a steel plate than break a cast iron cross slide!

It also means that the load is spread over a far greater area

Thanks every one and especially to Gary for the drawing. I'll have a measure up tomorrow and post my findings.

Cheers

Bill