anyone ever seen one of these?

[nic422]

This is a tailstock for a Boley reform lathe. It has a runner in it that houses a 6.92mm collet. The collet is attached to the long threaded rod that clamps and tightens from a bolt seen here from the tail end of the tail stock. I’ve never seen any collets this size and am anxious to find other sized collets of this type to fit. Any ideas?

• This topic was modified 4 years ago by Tamas Richard.

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Nic,
From the pic it looks like the tailstock spindle is offset from headstock center. If that’s the case then might be something like a screw or jewel polishing attachment? Those two chucks should fit into that collet. Maybe jeweling chucks or screw holding chucks. Jeweling chucks normally fit a 50 collet so you may have something different there. Rather than changing out the collet there is usually an assortment of chucks made to fit the collet that is in the tailstock.
If the tailstock takes an 8mm collet then you can always use other collets to hold chucks to polish screws or flat surfaces of jewels. Then again I’m just guessing here. Could be something entirely different. Would like to know.

Bob

[nic422]

Leinen made a lathe called the ‘Reform’. The bed would house a tailstock and a midstock. Both are offset from each prospective base but do line up with the headstock center. I have seen other
reform lathes with collet holding tailstocks but none like this one. The collet shown that goes into the tailstock is 6.92mm thick as appose to the standard 8mm, and it’s the only one that came with it and
is has a 50 opening, but is a 6.92mm collet. I’ve seen bullet extracting collets for gunsmiths that are 7mm, so maybe this came from that field?

@Bob Tascione wrote:

Hi Nic,
From the pic it looks like the tailstock spindle is offset from headstock center. If that’s the case then might be something like a screw or jewel polishing attachment? Those two chucks should fit into that collet. Maybe jeweling chucks or screw holding chucks. Jeweling chucks normally fit a 50 collet so you may have something different there. Rather than changing out the collet there is usually an assortment of chucks made to fit the collet that is in the tailstock.
If the tailstock takes an 8mm collet then you can always use other collets to hold chucks to polish screws or flat surfaces of jewels. Then again I’m just guessing here. Could be something entirely different. Would like to know.

Bob

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Nic,
Not sure if I’m understanding. Is that tailstock center offset to your Boley headstock? From what I gather the collet does hold the common sized 50 jeweling chuck and if it’s offset then could be used for polishing the flat jewel surfaces and/or screws? These chucks can be found quite often up on ebay and used tool suppliers.

Bob

[Bob Tascione]

Oh wait a second. Do you have a Boley that it fits on?
I should have asked that first.
Also, are those two chucks on the bench next to the tailstock 50s? Do they fit into the collet? If so you we might be able to determine what the tailstock is used for by examining the chuck bores; ie stepped, tapered etc. Although they don’t have the typical stop screw used for jeweling chucks but still might be able to figure out what they are used for.
Here are a couple of pics of my screw head polisher.

Bob

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Tamas Richard.

[nic422]

no, they’re not 50s, but that one on the screw head polisher on yours is the same connection to the collet that it has on mine. It’s possibly home made, but I would love to know whoever made this where they got the collet.

Actually, the lathe is a Leinen reform.

the collet is 6.92mm wide.

Well, if you ever see or remember anything like it, please let me know!

[Bob Tascione]

Yeah that’s why I put the pic of the screw polishing tool so you could see that it used the same type of collet. I think it’s most likely the same thing or at least used for the same type of applications. I have a few different setups that use these collets. All are different lengths but are 7mm like yours and 50s meant to hold 5mm chucks. Haven’t seen any different sizes out there than 50s but that doesn’t mean much. Could very well be different sizes available.

Bob

[nic422]

I have seen gunsmithing collets that are 7mm. I wonder if they come in various sizes and would work too

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