Easiest Morse taper setup ever

After suggesting this as a method to someone else I thought I had to try it for real. I bought a Chinese 2 in 1 Digital Angle Ruler, with an LCD scale resolving angles to 0.05 degrees.

MT3 requires 1.4377 degrees od offset on your top slide. Best possible on the 0.5 degree LCD was 1.45. I set the angle between topslide and chuck face to 90-1.45 = 88.55 degrees.

I chucked up a piece of 1" diameter cold rolled and turned a taper 1 5/8" long. The tailstock was not involved in the turning.

I tried it for a fit in the tailstock taper and it felt tight. I removed it, added a line of felt tip and tried again. Contact end to end, best in the middle.

I am not used to succeeding quite this easily. Perhaps reality is at fault?

bestest

Robin

Looks like a great result. Be interesting to see how repeatable it is if you break down the setup and make another one.

regards

Maybe a better piece of steel, leaded perhaps? Problem is I became a bit miserly with the metal when the prices went up. I will see what I have

Robin

Put a clean Morse taper in the chuck, bring up the tailstock center and tighten. Now, using a DTI track the taper using the top slide. Cut a correct taper from the setting.

Sounds like a lot more fun that way, but is it easy?

To eliminate any chuck eccentricity issues, put a bit of bar in the chuck, centre drill it, then trap a good clean centre between this hole and a centre in the tailstock and proceed as Clive. Make sure the DTI is at centre height.

You were lucky that day when you tightened down the compound. I find that having a selection of MT sockets or adaptors helps a great deal used as test pieces. It is possible to detect which end of the taper is loose when the socket is held lightly in the fingers. As the fit gets close, a little engineers blue will enable a perfect fit. Of course, getting the angle perfect will be hit and miss. I use a proper taper turning attachment on the Smart & Brown model A, but this although able to be much more easily finely adjusted than any compound, it is still much too coarse to get Morse tapers without trial and error. It is important to get the tip of the tool exactly on the centreline with any taper. Unfortunately every different size of Morse taper is a different angle.

Hi Old Mart

I think you are right and there was an element of luck interpreting that 0.05 degree resolution on the LCD

I was thinking I might CNC a more precise angle and try that?

Until then I am leaving the top slide just where it is

best

Robin

You might try polishing the taper you cut with some emery paper and oil to get a smooth finish, then check your reading. If it is still good, you could drill and ream a dowel hole through the topslide and cross slide for future use with no set up time needed. Just drop the dowel pin in and go.

I kept the taper turning attachment set at the MT2 angle just in case I wanted more made, and it was not used. About a year later it had to be reset for another job. Even a CNC would struggle to set the exact angle, it needs to be better than +- 0.0001" over the length of the taper, which is why they are finish ground, normally between centres.