Coventry Die Sleeve for the Colchester Lathe

Hi Arron, You did a nice job there... great fit to the tailstock quill. Cheers. Paul,,

Nice job Arron. Great addition to the Lathe. Regards. Steve.

Definitely a heck of a die holder...nice build...I ought to make something like this for my "good" dies somtime

Gday Aaron, they look like a high quality die holder, beautiful sliding fit in the quill to mate, awesome job as always, cheers

Funny. I just made those adapters for my lathe. But what I did was to remove the tailstock quill and make another one that I drilled out all the way. It’s 2” longer than the real quill. The reason I did that was to not have the tailstock pulling for the thread. This way the quill pulls straight out from the tailstock. It has much less mass so that I don’t have to push the tailstock when threading. I have mostly Geometric heads which also have the push off lever. I prefer those so the spring doesn’t have to pull the head at the end. For large screws it doesn’t really matter, but when doing small screws with the small heads I don’t like the tension produced. It can’t be good for the thread. For the pull off models such as the Rubometric 1”, I made a finger on the bottom of the adapter, that goes over the quill I made. This contacts the carriage, the way the tailstock would. I have three adapters that go on that quill for different diameter shafts for the different size heads. As you know, it was a bit of work, having to make a 1.0625” hole all the way through an 11” shaft made of 1144. But that lets me make a long thread.

Good to see the Dorian tool post earning it's keep.

Thanks for the video mate. Have a good one 👍🇦🇺

Lovely job Aaron.

Nice project! I have never considered making a sleeve attachment for the tailstock. My tap follower has a reversible spring loaded pin with one side having a point and the other having a cone cut in the end for taps that have a pyramidal point on the back end.

Nice! I might have to copy that. I've got a turret to go on my Colchester Triumph but it's a pita to fit & it would be good to be able to use a Coventry die head on the tailstock instead.

Good job, Aaron. Dont worry so much about the surface finish. A little emery cloth will fix that. In most cases its the steel itself that is crap, not our tools or cutting tecnique. i´ve had steel that made noises where i thought it will rip my carbide cutter in half. It came from an unknown planet and was sold as mild steel. On the other hand i bought a load of german made steel from Krupp that cut supersmooth like butter. It´s obviously more dependent on the manufacturer than on our machining/toolmaking art.

Looks pretty sharp Thanks for the video

Nice work! A lot better and neater.

Thanks just what I was looking for. I’m a new subscriber via Haxby Shed.

Very nice Aaron

Fantastic job Aaron. The outside tailstock attachment idea was totally new to me opens up lots of possibilities. Thank you for the ammunition for thought

I've got one of these along with a load of metric die sets but haven't got round to making up an adaptor yet. I'd planned to make an MT3 adaptor but your idea is much better, attaching to the tailstock barrel. I will need to check my key is strong enough to withstand the torque. You may have given me the impetus to finish it off but on the other hand I could do without the distraction....

Good one . Have cut gazillions of threads with those heads . They are a great tool .

Nice work Aaron - love the pump bottle idea for the coolant :) - Chris NG

nicely done.