# My version of a 7 x 12 lathe tailstock cam lock



## dgjessing (Mar 23, 2010)

A standard improvement to the Harbor Freight / Grizzly lathe... The parts: 







In place:






All steel. I turned the eccentric in a 3 jaw chuck with bits of 16 gauge steel on two of the jaws. The handle and the "barrel" have been painted flat black to match other, similar bits on the lathe. Works great in limited testing so far. Beats the heck out of using a wrench 

There is an obvious boss in the tailstock casting for just this purpose; does anyone sell a version of this lathe with a cam lock in place?

By the way, I milled the flats in the bottom plate with my fake "milling machine":


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## Deanofid (Mar 23, 2010)

Great old drill press, there. 
Nice mod for your lathe, too.
Dean


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## Twmaster (Mar 26, 2010)

Oh my goodness. I love that drill press. (I have a weak spot for old shop machinery)

Micro-Mark sells a variant of the<a href="http://www.micromark.com/MICROLUX-7X14-MINI-LATHE,8176.html"> 7x with a 14" bed</a>. They supply their machine with a cam lock tail stock.


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## dgjessing (Mar 28, 2010)

You guys admiring my drill press (King-Seeley / Craftsman circa 1950) inspired me to give it a little TLC this evening. It's been a little noisy, and the quill was binding up & down a bit after being locked in place. So I took it apart for a good cleaning. The two bearings the pulley runs in have seen better days (that's where the noise was). Since I'm broke, I thought I'd try working some 90 weight gear oil into them rather than just getting new ones, and it sure has quieted the thing down (for now, anyway). The other two bearings (the ones the accuracy is concerned with) feel fine so I left them alone. A little wire brushing / emery cloth and oil have the quill working smooth as can be. 

I got it from my dad, who got it from his neighbor, who probably bough it new in the 50's sometime. I think I have a collet chuck for it around here somewhere...


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## lathe nut (Mar 28, 2010)

dgjessing, I have a couple like that and a floor model, they sure are better that the cheap one that are out there today, the last one I got at a flea market had to give $ 40.00 could not get him to go down but was a good deal, have fun, Lahte Nut


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## dgjessing (Mar 29, 2010)

Mine is a floor model too (not apparent in the picture). But the one I use by far the most is a Cummins-Mack (Taiwanese) bench unit I got in '81.


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## lathe nut (Mar 29, 2010)

that on is in super shape, looks great, Lathe Nut


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