Mini-Lathe Tailstock caliper DRO bracket

thingiverse

I was eager to fit a DRO onto my lathe tailstock. Found some designs within Thingiverse but they didn't exactly meet my needs, so I designed this very basic version. The mini lathe is a 7x14, a very common Chinese type of lathe, which was supplied by Amadeal (UK). The tailstock quill is 26mm in diameter. This design uses a 6"/150mm digital caliper, which are very popular and can be obtained from many sources; the general design/dimensions are very similar between manufacturers. The caliper will require modification to fit onto the bracket and within the space constraints of the tailstock. A grinder could be used to cut off the unnecessary parts. The bracket for holding the caliper onto the tailstock is merely glued onto the tailstock, after providing a "key" for the adhesive to stick to the painted surface of the tailstock; there's no need to sand down to the metal if the painted surface is in sound condition. The second part of the bracket is clamped onto the tailstock quill and also onto the modified caliper. A 4mm cap screw and nut are used to secure the bracket onto the quill, while three screws (4mm) are used to secure the modified caliper onto the bracket. This design allows disconnection of the caliper and removal of the quill bracket if this is ever required. On my tailstock, in order to detach the drill chuck, the quill had to be retracted fully into the tailstock body; a modification of the drill chuck may be required to enable earlier disengagement. The rotating centre had no such problem. The tailstock also required a redesigned locking lever (slightly taller), but that shouldn't be a problem...you have a lathe, right? Version 2 of the quill bracket has more material for the clamping screws and a little more "body" at the clamping screw side as version 1 showed signs of splitting. I've found the 26mm hole a bit tight on the quill, not unusable, just tight. Version 2 has this expanded to 26.4mm. (This has not been printed yet to see if it's acceptable.) Sketchup files are included in case you need to make minor modifications to suit your application.