![atlas lathe taper attachment atlas lathe taper attachment](http://madscientisthut.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/P1014272-300x225.jpg)
To set up a compound or cross slide really well, take off the feedscrew by removing the bracket and screwing it out of the nut. If you just crank away at the handle with one hand, the slide will describe a sinuous path which will leave a stripy finish, and very slight deviation from a geometrically correct surface.
![atlas lathe taper attachment atlas lathe taper attachment](http://www.lathes.co.uk/atlas-lathe-accessories/img1.gif)
This is particularly important with a compound (or with the cross slide on certain, usually smaller lathes) where the feedscrew endthrust and support bracket is cantilevered off the end of the slide. It helps if you started on a floppy lathe, like an Atlas or a Myford, where this is survival stuff. To feed like a 'lifer': try and devise a hand-swapping procedure which allows you to maintain constant pure couple (which implies you apply equal and opposite forces, with (say) thumb on the ball and forefinger on the handle, tangentially, turning from the wrist then swap in the other hand every half turn, to smoothly take over without any change in speed or torque. However the feel on a Hardinge compound, if it's properly set up, means you can get pretty close to as good, and depending on your application it may be perfectly fine. Unless you're an old-school practiced hand on feeding, the TA (used in conjuction with power longitudinal feed) will give a better finish than the compound. I agree that setting the compound perpendicular to the turning axis is the way to go when using the taper attachment. With the clamping bolt loosened, the cross slide dial, screw, and nut are just swinging in the breeze. I removed the cross-slide for cleaning and a look, and it doesn't have any telescoping mechanism on the screw: when using the taper attachment you're supposed to loosen this clamping bolt that allows the nut assembly to disengage from the slide body. Thanks! Herein lies the rub: it turns out that neither applies. If neither applies, it makes sense to set the compound perpendicular so it can be used to apply successive cuts.Troup, If your taper turning attachment has either a telescopic crossfeed screw (ie splined connection) or a double-decker cross-slide (I'm pretty sure Hardinge didn't offer the latter but I presume they did have the former) then the compound travel might as well be parallel to the turning axis(I seem to recall this is marked as 90 degrees on an HLV?)
![atlas lathe taper attachment atlas lathe taper attachment](http://www.lathe.com/images/pl-taper.gif)
It's really clumsy: it invalidates the DRO settings, which just adds to the river of pain.Ĭould some kind soul enlighted me as to good technique on cutting multiple tapers?
![atlas lathe taper attachment atlas lathe taper attachment](https://cdn3.volusion.com/hpruc.gvutw/v/vspfiles/photos/10173-4T.jpg)
I've got the compound at 45 degrees: I'm using that to fine-adjust the tool's cross-axis position (and compensating with the carriage handwheel) when the cross-slide is engaged to the taper. I've got a feeling that I'm being a dumbass, and that there is a simpler approach. I'm having trouble cutting the tapers, and I've got this long and clumsy (and probably a bit stupid) sequence I'm going through to set up each angle on the guide bar, then position the tool, slide the taper attachment down the bed until the cross-slide engaging bolt can be screwed in without moving the cross-slide, etc. The pins are about 0.9 inches long, and have 3 different taper angles on them, each seperated by a radial shoulder. I'm making some small interlock pins on my HLV-H, and am having a hard time with the taper attachment.