trouble turning tapered pins

Any ideas ?

Thanks

Greg

Better yet, find a centerless grinder.

Some CB radio antennas were tapered. I have cut pieces from them in the past. But not big enough for what you want.

First off, how fast will your lathe go? If it won't do over 2000rpms, you are going to have a real tough time, even with a HSS cutter. Next, do you have a cutter ground with a serious chipbreaker and positive rake? This cutter needs to be RAZOR sharp, in fact you should probably hone it to a razor edge so it requires less pressure to cut.

Best thing here would be to grind it. Even an adapter to just hold a Dremel grinder on the toolpist might work. Put in a fairly large rock, crank it wide open, slow the lathe way down and cut the feed back. It'll be slow, but should work.

I have turned a part down around .095 and 1" long for my dad's Marlin .22 firing pin. You really have to just breathe on it and run the lathe jast as fast as you can, hoping it doesn't hop up on top of the tool, as Davis mentions. I scrapped three of them before finally getting it made.

BTW, how is the taper being cut? taper attach? tailstock offset? Compound?

I have ruined a few pins. I'll try spinning them faster, but 2000 rpm is well beyond what my lathe will do.

I'm using a round nose tool. How steep would you go on the back rake ? Would it help to use a smaller tip radius ? It does take a light touch.

If that doesn't work, I might try grinding.

Thanks for your advice

Greg

I'm trying measure the inside diameter of needle jets in Amal Concentric carbs on a Norton Commando. After I put in new needle jets, one side ran like it was too lean. As it turns out it was almost an entire size (0.0154" vs 0.106") smaller.

Now that I have gotten this close, I might try to make a pin that is a smooth taper and see what sizes I really have.

Thanks for the help

Greg

Gerald J.