A headstock internal stop for the Unimat 3.

Recently I took on the job of sorting out some axles for a friend. He had a model railway loco kit in the pipeline, and had been let down by a supplier. The job involved cutting a lot of axles from 1.5mm silver steel and facing them to the required length. To save myself a lot of measuring I made this little timesaver;

The main part is brass, with a length of 1mm silver steel rod as the stop. It fits into the headstock spindle;

Once in place a chuck can be fitted;

I've left the collet and closing nut off for clarity.

Each axle was cut overlength with a junior hacksaw, then held in a collet whilst being pushed up to the stop. Then the axles could be faced to length, all using the same setting and without the need to check and measure each one.

Of course this is meant for a specific job, I'm sure that an adjustable one using threaded rod could be made if required. I had to use 1mm rod as part of the stop rod sat inside the collet, each axle being 16mm long.

One thing to note is that collets tend to pull the job into the chuck, which did move the stop rod slightly, despite it being Loctited in place. On any production job checking every few, or every hundred or so, parts is necessary anyway. At least if the stop if moving inwards then work will be overlength, and easily put right.

This simple little tool saved me a lot of time and effort, and the basic idea can be adapted to almost any lathe.

Paul.