For machinists - seeking advice on spider for small 10x22 lathe spindle

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Markit

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Seeking advice from knowledgeable machinist / gunsmith.

Recently picked up a well tooled little King Canada 10x22” lathe to replace the gearhead I sold a few years back.

Decent little hobby lathe.

While it only has a MT4 spindle with a 1” thru bore I would like to machine a spider for it.

As is common with these style lathes the rear of the spindle uses 2 threaded lock rings to secure the spindle pulley and set the backlash.

This leaves very little thread to attach a threaded spider.

Any thoughts on whether it would be ok to remove one of the lock rings to free up more thread and the use the threaded on spider to act as a replacement of the removed lock ring kinda like acting as a jam nut on the first lock ring?

Plan to machine the spider from SS.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Not mounted the same way, but I made my spider from brass. Had a piece of heavy walled tube on hand. Only reason to use stainless is if a chunk of appropriate size was available.
I cannot see why you could not replace a lock nut with a spider.
 
Thanks all. I have the perfect bit of SS in the scap bin which is why I am using it.

Never threaded internal threads on SS so it will be a good learning experience.
 
Grab yourself some cutting fluid, and a box of Acid Brushes to use as applicators. Stanky ol' pipe threading lube will work, but a there are dozens of less odorous fluids, either straight oils or Water-Solubles, that will serve very well. In a pinch, bacon fat or animal based lard work well. For my home lathe, I used to mix water soluble at around 10 percent, in a soup tin with a brush for applying as needed. It would sit on my bench and get dry, simply replace the water lost, and give it a stir and yer back in business... Not every lathe gets used enough to justify the cost and maintenance that a full coolant system requires...

I always taught the guys I trained, to point the compound slide straight in at work, then measure the needed number of degrees to one side or the other (depending if internal or external thread) . Then square up the tool post, and carry on. Saw a lot of ruined training projects where they assumed that the protractor scale was in the right orientation for setting their (usually) 29 Degrees offset.

Think your way through the set-up, maybe do a couple practice pieces in easy material, like Aluminum, relax, and have fun! There are a lot of folks that lose their minds worrying about such a very basic lathe skill.
 
B_noser said:
Can't comment on your lock nut question, but why are you using stainless for your spider? There are much better machining steels.
Click to expand...
Little ditty I picked up over the years. "304 is in an Effin whore, 303, is the one for me!"

There is, as the ditty suggests, a wide range of machineabilty, between some grades of stainless steel. Best to know what you are dealing with.

Sometimes, ya just gotta run what ya have in house!
 
I've got a very similar setup I've been running for about 3 years now with the same 2 locking rings you described and just removing one and then threading the spider to act as the removed nut works great. I used 4 brass screws as my centring screws and just remove them and leave the spider body in place when I'm not actively using it.
 
trevj said:
Little ditty I picked up over the years. "304 is in an Effin whore, 303, is the one for me!"

There is, as the ditty suggests, a wide range of machineabilty, between some grades of stainless steel. Best to know what you are dealing with.

Sometimes, ya just gotta run what ya have in house!
Click to expand...
Some grades of stainless are horrible at galling and seizing. 304 might not be the worst, but it's up there!
Not a bad idea to go into it with you eyes open, and bail on the material if it fights you.
 
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I forgot to mention, when installed and ready to use, make sure you have indexed the screws to match your 4 jaw chuck.
 
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