top ten lathe attachments - because machines are expensive

[Mattybock]

If you could rate, by your own judgement, the most useful lathe attachments, what would they be. Would they be by the times you've used them, or might it be by the sear specific nature of use? (eg. i use by quick change tool post all the time, but only a milling attachment can work as a milling attachment)
I don't own so many as 10 attachments, so here's mine.

1. steady rest - on my 7x14 Mao Deluxe, it's great
2. QCTP - my tool bits are jimmied up from straps of tool steel and shimming is foo.
3. Chuck... because I've run out of ideas.

[Harold_V]

The most useful things I have found to be of importance are soft jaws and a duplicating attachment. Both permit work that may, otherwise, be difficult, if not impossible, on a lathe.

I am also fond of a four position indexing tool post, especially if it is capable of indexing in small increments, as mine is (3°). They are far superior to the quick change posts if one is engaged in producing numbers of small parts. Not so handy for one-offs, however.

Harold

[SteveHGraham]

If I could only have one chuck, it would be a 4-jaw.

[Silverbullet]

I choose the quick change 5c collet system. Had one on my Sheldon 14" lathe and it's the best for doing quick repeat jobs. But the 6 jaw I have on my Logan is a close second , like others still always need a 4 jaw to get the tough jobs done.

[ken572]

The most useful things I have found to be of importance are soft jaws and a duplicating attachment. Both permit work that may, otherwise, be difficult, if not impossible, on a lathe.

I am also fond of a four position indexing tool post, especially if it is capable of indexing in small increments, as mine is (3°). They are far superior to the quick change posts if one is engaged in producing numbers of small parts. Not so handy for one-offs, however.

Harold

Harold,

What brand name is your four position indexing tool post

Ken.

[Harold_V]

Harold,

What brand name is your four position indexing tool post

Strange as it may seem, it's badged O.K. Rubber Welders.

I was exposed to one of them before I purchased mine, which made the choice dead easy.

Harold

[ken572]

Harold,

What brand name is your four position indexing tool post

Strange as it may seem, it's badged O.K. Rubber Welders.

I was exposed to one of them before I purchased mine, which made the choice dead easy.

Harold

Good Morning Harold

Thank You for the quick reply.

That is a very interesting badged name for a four position
indexing tool post.

It would have taken alot longer then normal search time
without knowing that badge name.

Ken.

[earlgo]

In addition to those mentioned, I'd vote for:
a good live center
an Albrecht tailstock chuck
a good DTI and simple attachment to the tool post
a good carriage stop
a good DRO
and for my ancient Atlas, a QC gearbox. (I'm tired of 5 min gear changes.)

--earlgo

[Mr Ron]

I would have to say, a milling attachment, especially if you don't have a milling machine. For light milling jobs like cutting key seats for woodruff or square keys. Without a mill or a shaper, the job would be impossible. Another would be the 6-way indexible tail stock tool holder.

[neanderman]

Taper attachment?

[pete]

This I think might get a bit long.
A bit hard to answer question since it's so easy to be job specific for attachments that fit into the type of projects your doing. And those could easily range from common to extremely rare and very costly tooling today. Just one example of that rare and expensive would be about everything they built and offered for lathes such as the Holtzapffel Ornamental Turning Lathes. At one time a fully equipped OT lathe cost apparently around the same price or more than a brand new but average home. Only the very rich could afford them, and that's almost true of the used OT lathes and there accessories today as well. Google images will turn up a bunch of pictures of both the equipment and the types of work they can do if anyone is at all interested. Even Rose Engine Lathes allow some surprising shapes to be generated. Watch making lathe attachments would add a lot more specialised tooling also.

Industrial wise, there's been some really amazing lathe attachments designed and built over the years that CNC has pretty much made redundant today. Cutting the female and male interrupted threads that are used on artillery pieces for Wellin breach screws would be another one.

From a hobbiest's perspective, then buying as many books as you can find in the U.K. about shop built accessories for a Myford Super 7 lathe would pretty much keep you busy for the rest of your life redesigning and building what interests you and to fit your own particular brand of lathe. The Ivan Law gear cutting book shows drawings for what's called the Eureka form relieving attachment that will allow you to make your own gear cutters at home on your lathe. They'd still need heat treating and final sharpening after making them though.

My interests and opinions have been changed very much just from all the hobbiest magazines and books I've read from the U.K. So there's a lot of lathe accessories that might interest me that someone else with different machining interests would find no real use for.

In no real order and in no way even a 1% list.

I am surprised no one mentioned a lathe faceplate and a hold down set to fit the tee slots or slots in that faceplate. It can hold work shapes that no other type of chuck can. If it can be swung on a lathe a faceplate can almost alway's hold it.

A Tee slotted cross slide and again a hold down set to fit. That allows work to be bolted to the cross slide for between center's boring.

To go along with that, a milling head or "live tooling" in CNC terms attached to that cross slide. Then an accurate method to index and lock the lathes spindle from rotating would be handy. Hemmingway in the U.K. make what's called the Quick Step milling head as just one example. A worm, wormwheel and dividing plates rigidly attached somewhere to the lathes spindle would do the dividing.

Royal at one time made a very nice and desirable ball tipped screw adjustable live center for doing taper turning I'd love to have a copy of.

Lathe slotting attachments that allow internal keyways to be cut.

An electronic leadscrew attachment gives you almost unlimited threading and feeds with no need for the limitations in a lathes gear box.

Again I'm surprised or didn't notice a ball turning attachment mentioned given how many people build them.

Shop built knurling tool. Or some years ago there was an excellent artical in the Home Shop Machinist magazine about building your own cut knurling tool that are really expensive to buy commercial versions of.

Cam and crank machining and grinding attachments.

Hydraulic copy attachments. Today going with a hobby type CNC might even be cheaper, faster, and a lot quieter though.

There's almost no end to the attachments that were built for lathe use that allowed some very complex machining to be done long before Numerical Control and then CNC were invented. Some dedicated searching through all those old books Google has scanned might turn up lot's more. Even going through all the different threads on here and other forums would make your eye's glaze over.

Probably for the more standard type of available accessories though I think most here might list a quick change tool set up, and then maybe a good lathe DRO to be the biggest and most useful bang for the buck.

Pete

[SteveM]

A second three-jaw and a second 4-jaw chuck.

That way I can have the jaws reversed on the second set and NEVER have to swap jaws again!

Also, a multi-position stop. Came in really handy when making the water jug caps as all the lengths were "programmed" into the stops.

Steve