I thought I'd try my hand at making one or two dead centers for this Craftsman 109 micro-mini lathe. The headstock spindle and tailstock ram are supposedly a Morse Taper 0 (MT0). I took a lot of time to get the compound set to the right angle, 0.026 inches of taper per side per inch of travel. I got the number from the internet, which the taper for MT0 was .0521 inches of taper per inch (included angle). I then carved out a taper from a piece of 3/8" steel and for whatever reason, the taper was wrong. I fiddled with the compound angle a number of times until I got a finished taper that fit the tailstock ram. I tried that dead center in the headstock spindle but it didn't fit right. Hmm. I then set the compound angle to about 0.020 inches per inch and made another center. That one fit the headstock, and strangely, it fit fairly well in the tailstock too. Hmm again. Maybe I just messed up the first center. In any event, I now have two dead centers for the Craftsman lathe. Don't look too closely at them, as they aren't the best quality. I might try to make one more just to see if it turns out better than the first one I did.
Now I just need a dog driver plate and a lathe dog or two.
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