CARRIAGE LOCK LEVER

(DECEMBER 2006)

JOB DONE MAN!!

The sieg C6B lathe ( as other brands same size lathes)  is equipped qith a bolt on the right side of the saddle that allows the user to lock the whole carriage/saddle compound pulling the L shaped block against the lower bedway side.

This bolt is not really accessible with an allen key, so I thought to make a wee lever for it.

lot of people leave the allen key in the bolt head but the allen key is never stable on the bolt, it falls down in between the bedways frequently, each time the lathe vibrate a we bit or the user touch the allen key. (I was one of those users ...)

The new lock lever must be small and practical to use, and must be fixed with the bolt.

No plans, do draws for this project, just an idea in the brain and let's create...

starting from a 12mm stainless steel rod I am turing the bolt. The bolt must be threaded M8 for 25 mm and then must have a top side body for 30mm where the lever will be inserted.

the photo shows the thread made as the finishing for the upper body.

an extra 20mm are left close to the tailstock center because I don't like to go machining too close to the tailstock center !!

the part was parted off and then re-mounted in the chuck to finish the left side edge.

Once completed, I had to center the bolt with the laser center finder, to be ready to made a M8 thread on top of the body.

a touch with a 10mm end mill to make flat the surface ....

and a 6.9 mm drill, before tapping the thread.

here we are, thread done.

Back on the lathe to turn the handle.. just a simple 65mm bit with an M8 thread on the right head and few lines to improve the grip and the style.

I wanted to do a perfect carriage lock so I had to make a spacer / sleeve made of plastic.

This is because when the carriage lock is loose I don't wanna have a playing lever that make noise each vibration on the lathe.

The only way to make a stable "platform" for the lever was to create this small plastic sleeve...

the photo shows how to use old unused bits, as the one that I am turning...

I had to grind a MINI boring bar to be able to bore into an 6.5mm drill bit hole..

all right, the result of one hour of work is this:

bolt, spacer and lever. all perfect, all stainless, all customized!

lever mounted on the bolt and then grind with a bench grinder to remove the excess part of lever thread that was coming out from the back of the bolt thread..

lever mounted on the lathe...

and these photos are the lever in OFF and ON position (carriage free to move, carriage locked)