Lathe: Compound Slide Delete

There's more potential play in the compound slide than I originally expected. It because very apparent when my parting blade jammed in the work and I saw the entire compound rotate on the gib. Since I only use the compound for threading and cutting tapers, it made sense to replace it with a solid chunk of metal.

The clearance between the top slide and chuck center is 55mm, so I carried that clearance over to the steel block. I realized setting it up for the largest diameter work it could handle would compromise doing small diameter work (which is the majority of what I do), so I made the block reversible, hence the two set of screw holes. The back of the block is relieved at 22* for work clearance when in the large diameter position.

In large diameter position.

In small diameter position.

To better support the QCTP I took a 3/16" hot rolled steel plate, milled top and bottom flat, and cut a shallow channel in the bottom the same width as the top of the steel block, keeping it positioned side to side.

It uses the existing compound mount, which also makes re-installing the stock compound slide very easy. The new setup works very well and has noticeably increased the rigidity of the lathe.

With 0XA QCTP mounted.