Smithy MIDAS MI-1220 LTD, Operator'S Manual, Page: 54 / 133

To offset the tailstock, loosen the two base-locking bolts (Figure 4.8). To offset to the
right, loosen the right adjusting bolt and tighten the left. To offset to the left, loosen the
left adjusting bolt and tighten the right.
Figure 11.5 Tapers cut with the compound rest are usually short, abrupt angles.
Figure 11.6 In setting over the tailstock, the lathe centers move from their parallel
position with the tool’s traverse travel.
You can turn long, gradual tapers by setting over the tailstock, but take care. Your
computations must be nearly perfect, because an error will spoil your work.
The distance of tailstock set over needed to machine any given taper depends on three
factors:
• The differential between the parallel positions with the tool’s traverse travel
• The length of the taper in relation to its extreme diameters, if the entire shaft is to be
tapered
• The ratio between the length of the tapered portion to the entire length of the shaft (or
work between centers when you're tapering only part of the shaft.
When the taper extends the entire length of the workpiece, tailstock setover should equal
half the difference between the finished diameters of the ends (Figure 11.7). When a
taper extends only part of the length of the shaft, divide the total shaft length by the
11: Lathe Turning
11-5
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