Question about old Wallace lathe

[Kevin Stanis]

I picked up an old Wallace No.46 and looking to upgrade the dead center to a live center. I'm having trouble with the drive center slipping and hope a live center will allow me to get a tighter fit. Can anyone point me in the right direction of where to buy a live center for my tailstock? Here's some pictures



http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo229/strat24/lathe1_zpscymhjtyf.jpg

(http://s378.photobucket.com/user/strat24/media/lathe1_zpscymhjtyf.jpg.html)http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo229/strat24/lathe2_zps84m9n0fe.jpg
(http://s378.photobucket.com/user/strat24/media/lathe2_zps84m9n0fe.jpg.html)http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo229/strat24/lathe3_zpsdescscwt.jpg (http://s378.photobucket.com/user/strat24/media/lathe3_zpsdescscwt.jpg.html)

http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo229/strat24/lathe5_zpszess4r6a.jpg (http://s378.photobucket.com/user/strat24/media/lathe5_zpszess4r6a.jpg.html)

http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo229/strat24/lathe4_zps61rhzkeg.jpg (http://s378.photobucket.com/user/strat24/media/lathe4_zps61rhzkeg.jpg.html)

[Brice Rogers]

The standard live center is inserted into a Morse taper pocket. Your quill isn't set up to accept the standard live center.

Five years ago I bought a small live center with MT1. The Morse taper part fits into a pocket in the bearing. So I can separate the two. In theory, you could take the end of your quill and file it or machine it down to fit into a similar live center. I might have bought the separable live center from Amazon or eBay, but honestly it is over 5 years ago and that is a guess. If you have a local wood turning store, go there and try to pull the live centers apart until you find one.

Alternatively, if you have a friend with a machine shop (or are clever at improvising yourself), you could have a custom live center made for your lathe.

[Brice Rogers]

Here is a link to an older thread addressing the same challenge: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?191596-Modifying-a-1950s-Beaver-Lathe-for-Morse-Taper/page2&p=1978764

Try googling "homemade live center" (no quotes). Here is a video of what one fellow did https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCMQ9xdQXdI

[Olaf Vogel]

Take the quill to a machinist and have then drill an MT taper
also they can clean up your headstock taper.

had both done mine, for the same reason. Was t much.