exe lathe

[chris cookseyParticipant @chriscooksey96066]

hello,

im chris and new to this site… ive acquired a lathe after many many years of absence from the joys of engineering… a lovely exe …

but im confused… i cant make head nor tail of the headstock taper… it looks to be the same taper as morse but it appears to be 2.5 morse if there was such an animal… mt3 sticks out too much mt2 disapears inside.. any ideas?

i love the lathe, so compact… easy to install on its robust cast pedestal stand… plenty of speeds.. dog clutches are a really handy option.

im missing the topslide… looking for one but ive modified a ml7 one for the time being

also struggling a bit to set the tailstock.

cheers

chris

[chris cookseyParticipant @chriscooksey96066]

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

The usual source of info does suggest they used non standard tapers on several of their lathes

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Possibly the taper in your headstock is only a short taper which would make your MT3 ' stick out too much ' as long as the tapers match… check by 'blueing'. It's something that wouldn't overly concern me. I have used a MT2 taper in my WM250 headstock MT4 taper ( small 2" chuck ) via an adaptor & that sticks out, but as long as it ran true I wasn't concerned about the 'stick out', just altered speed & doc accordingly.

​George.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

May be of some help…From Lathes.co.uk…EXE lathes…

..'Early headstock spindles ran in "plain cone and ball thrust bearings" and had a bore of 17/64" with a non-standard taper that, while the same angle as a No. 1 Morse was of larger size, yet smaller than a No. 2. Later spindles were bored through to take a 0.75" diameter bar and used a No. 2 Morse taper – a rather more sensible arrangement but one on which the advertising and other literature is silent'…

…The Super EXE stayed unchanged until 1935 when the centre height was increased to 31/2" by the use of deeper headstock and tailstock castings; this allowed the detachable gap to accommodate work a full 9" in diameter by 2.125" clear of the faceplate. The spindle bore was increased to 3/4", an unusually large size for a small lathe, and mention was also made of the increase in bearing size to accommodate what must have been a substantially larger diameter spindle; the size of the taper in the nose remains a mystery however – but scaling up the original dimensions indicates that even a No. 3 Morse would have been possible…

​Plenty of info' …. http://www.lathes.co.uk/exe/index.html …

George.

[chris cookseyParticipant @chriscooksey96066]

hello

thanks for the replies… i looked up the site mentioned when i first got the lathe… what a fantastic resource… as i have the later 3.5 inch the implication in the listing is that it would likely be 3 morse taper but there is a vagueness about it… as mentioned in a reply its not really an issue … i have a mt3 collet holder… im just curious whats going on.

if anyone knows of a topslide i would really like to bring it back to original… or any other options or parts.

cheers

chris

[ScrumpyParticipant @scrumpy]

About 40+ years ago I visited Marcus H Hodge an engineering and boiler repair shop in Exeter and they had two exe lathes and I think if memory services me correct one had a milling attachment fitted being driven from the lead screw could this be correct or am I dreaming

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

I have a Exe lathe, love the treadle, precision turning whilst standing on one leg and waving the other in the air. The headstock taper is a little odd, a MT3 taper goes in about halfway. I also have an Impetus, the headstock of which is based on the Exe, said to have a MT3 taper but appears to be the same as the Exe. The top slides for these are a bit small and weak, overtightening the tool clamp can crack them. The tool is normally held in a toolpost directly fitted to the cross slide, the top slide is used only for turning tapers (short ones!) The ML7 one is probably a bit more useful. Dave

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