This is an inexpensive accessory to make for your lathe if you don't have a taper attachment. The total cost is about a hundred dollars. You will need a boring head with the correct morse taper for your lathe and two sets of bearings for the live center that you make to go on the boring head. There was a post earlier about turning tapers. This way you leave your tailstock set to zero & do the adjusting on the boring head to get the amount of taper you want.

Doug Humbarger

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NRA Life member

BearClawe-Nice Tool! Who made the Boring Head? It the live center held on a shaft attached to the head itself? I have a Bison Boring head that takes a 5/8 shaft boring bar. I suppose I could just turn down a morse taper live center to 5/8 and use it that way. Neat approach nevertheless and prbably pretty rigid-Rob

Your spot on RGB. The live center has a 1/2" OD "tail" on the end which fits into the boring Head. This is a Polish boring head I don't know the manufacture though. Your approch would certainly work fine too. You can turn longer tapers with this tool but take smaller cuts.

Doug

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NRA Life member

BearClaw-My boring head takes an R8 taper, so I may have to make a #3 Morse to fit the boring head to my Jet 13X40 Lathe as well as turn down a live center to fit the head. I just got an ENCO catalog and they have a sale on Live centers so I think you have given me another excuse to make something usefull.The neat part of this hobby is that some-one always has a clever idea you have never thought of before. Thanks-Rob

RGB you can buy a boring head with a Morse taper already on it. Like the one in the pic. It's from Grand Tool Inc. Cost about $80.00. You can buy more expensive models though. I bought this one just to see if it would work. I'm all ears & eyes when it comes to home made shop tools!

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NRA Life member

[This message has been edited by Bear Claw (edited 03-13-2002).]

You can also get boring heads that thread onto whatever shank you want. This is a nice feature that increases versatility. They cost a little more, but can save money in the long run when you upgrade machines or mess up the shank somehow. - John