Stuck spur centre

Roger Tulk

Member
Messages
3,018
Location
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
I went to gently tap the spur centre out of my lathe headstock, and it won't budge. I have tried hitting the rod with a wooden mallet, and twisting with a wrench, and have squirted a little WD-40 on it. I cannot continue my learning process if I can't get that centre out! I may have to give up and do some flatwork until I figure this out.

Help me, O Family Woodworkers; you're my only hope!
 
I went to gently tap the spur centre out of my lathe headstock, and it won't budge. I have tried hitting the rod with a wooden mallet, and twisting with a wrench, and have squirted a little WD-40 on it. I cannot continue my learning process if I can't get that centre out! I may have to give up and do some flatwork until I figure this out.

Help me, O Family Woodworkers; you're my only hope!
You need a bigger hammer, Rog! Try a steel one, seriously.
 
Thank you! I just needed reassurance that I could whack it really hard. I have a home made knockout tool, as the seller couldn't find the one that came with the lathe. I am also using the safety key from my drill press in it, because they couldn't find that, either.

I will let you know...
 
Dumb thing is OK now...

I picked up my son's 6 lb. mallet that was lying around, and gave the knockout bar two whacks. The first whack shattered the nice wooden knob I had made for the knockout bar, the second sent the spur centre and the knockout bar flying the length of the lathe, and now I can get on with my work.

Thanks again!
 
Glad you got it out!

Use a green scrubby pad to clean the spur center off and the inside of the MT on the headstock, and I bet this won't happen again.

Cheers!
 
Glad you got it out!

Use a green scrubby pad to clean the spur center off and the inside of the MT on the headstock, and I bet this won't happen again.

Cheers!

I'll echo this. :thumb: It's also important to ensure both the center and the inside of the MT on the spindle are good and clean before inserting the spur center into the spindle. The inside of my spindle got chewed up to the point where I had to use a reamer to clean up the galled metal, simply because I didn't make sure things were clean first.

Also, don't put the spur center in the spindle, then attach the workpiece by whacking it with a mallet into the spur. This forces the spur center in too tightly, and can cause it to get stuck. Instead. drive the spur center into the workpiece off the lathe, then mount the spur and workpiece onto the lathe at the same time. Even if the spur doesn't stay "stuck" to the workpiece as you're mounting it all, the workpiece will have the indentations from the spur, and it'll be easy to match those up with the spur when you bring up the tailstock to hold everything in place.
 
Also, don't put the spur center in the spindle, then attach the workpiece by whacking it with a mallet into the spur. This forces the spur center in too tightly, and can cause it to get stuck. Instead. drive the spur center into the workpiece off the lathe, then mount the spur and workpiece onto the lathe at the same time. Even if the spur doesn't stay "stuck" to the workpiece as you're mounting it all, the workpiece will have the indentations from the spur, and it'll be easy to match those up with the spur when you bring up the tailstock to hold everything in place.

This is how I attach the spur (I took a course at LV, eh?) I might have had a bit of something sticking to the MT when I put it in the headstock, or when I tightened up the tailstock I may have been too enthusiastic. Either way, it's out now.
 
This is how I attach the spur (I took a course at LV, eh?) I might have had a bit of something sticking to the MT when I put it in the headstock, or when I tightened up the tailstock I may have been too enthusiastic. Either way, it's out now.

:thumb: I suspect most of us have stuck a spur center or three. :)
 
I picked up my son's 6 lb. mallet that was lying around, and gave the knockout bar two whacks. The first whack shattered the nice wooden knob I had made for the knockout bar, the second sent the spur centre and the knockout bar flying the length of the lathe, and now I can get on with my work.

Thanks again!

:bliss: Glad it is out. The green scrubby thing is a good tip. My woodturning club has an MT2 finishing taper reamer for loan to members. I need to borrow and use. I occasionally roll up some paper toweling into a sorta taper and soak with WD-40 and clean my taper with that. So far, so good. BTW, the specs for the MT have allowances, between manufacturers, I believe for most of us a stick is only a matter of time when tool 'A' meets internal taper 'X'.
 
My stuck M-2 tapers have had to put up with my learning ability.

Things I have learned:

Alway wipe the male taper with a rag and always wipe the inside of the female part of the taper Before inserting the tool. It only takes a couple seconds. Bradley formula, Undoing 1 stuck Morse = same amount of time as 75 cleanings.

For knock out I find that 10 or 15 "taps" work as well as one "whack" and is probably easier on the machinery. I move the knock out bar between taps so I get a tap on the right, then a tap on the left, then a tap at the top, etc. of the Morse's back end while doing this. For clarification, that tapping is inside of the fem taper. The taps are about the same rate as the shots out of a machine gun.

I usually just move the knock out tool in and out. If you use a hammer, steel is the banger of choice. It is that initial jolt, that a leather, copper, brass, etc. hammer cannot deliver, that does the job. Think of it this way---Would you rather be hit in the head with a 2 pound steel mallet or a 2 pound rubber mallet. The steel imparts a much faster and efficient initial movement from the hitter to the hittee (boy the spell checker sure didn't like that word).

I also store the Morse fittings where they do not get bumped and banged with other metal pieces and I refrain from letting ice cream, carmel, chop suey, etc. drip onto them when storing them.

To paraphrase my wife's brother, "That's (referring to the above) one darn fools opinion." Take it for what it is worth.

Enjoy,
JimB
 
I'd like to add that as you DO have a lathe, you can turn a MT2 out of some hard wood, then put some polishing compound on it and shove it into the MT2 headstock and spin it around, it will clean things up nicely.
 
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