I was thinking of getting a tail stock for my rod lathe. Does anyone have any good home grown ideas of how to make one?

ED,
I would just pick up one of these $20 tail stocks.

Then, I would put stock under it if needed to get the tail stock to the correct level to match up with the center shaft of your head stock center point.

Then you should be good to go for under $30.

Take care

Roger, I'm not sure I understand what is one of these for $20?

Ed,
I apologize. I neglected to paste the link:

Here it is: -- This live center has a live center -- with a 60 degree point:

[www.amazon.com]

Here is another one of similar design, with the exception that this one has a keyed chuck for the live center. In this case the chuck can free spool if you wanted to clamp in the end of a mandrel for example, or you can lock it into a stationary position, if you wished to do some drilling with the wrapper like drilling out the center line of a solid material grip that you might be making:

[www.amazon.com]

So, if a person used a mandrel along with grip stock to form a grip, the use of the chuck in this tail stock would work exceptionally well to lock the mandrel tight and not have any issues with the mandrel ever coming free while shaping as could be the case with just a pointed tail stock into the center point hold of a mandrel.

However, with the single gear ratio of a power wrapper, I am not sure how much one could make use of a drilling application with a power wrapper.

But for general grip shaping with a mandrel, the first tail stock listed could take care of most of your needs that would be related to rod building.


Good luck



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2020 10:49AM by roger wilson.

Roger,
Thanks.