Cam Lock Mod

I just recently added this mod to my tail stock. It is my new favorite modification. I got the Tailstock Cam Lock Kit from Littlemachineshop.com on one of the weekly special price deals. It comes with a good set of instructions and everything you need except for a few parts and tools needed for mounting. It is a straight forward modification with good instructions on how to do it but I did find that doing a couple of things Extra made it real nice.

The first involved the casting fillet on the rear inside cavity. Mine had quite a large fillet and the paint was globby in some areas. I just used my Dremel and a stone, then a sanding drum to square everything for the Pillow Block to set flat and centered over the foot post hole. Pick on the picture to open another Tab, to see better what I mean.

With the pillow block centered, I found there was quite a bit of slop in the locking handle shaft. So, I made a little Delrin bushing about .188 thick to take up the play and wah-lah a lean clean cam locking machine! ;-)

For the price this is a great modification and again saves me a ton of time and frustration of having to use a wrench and multiple turns to get it snug against the ways. Also note that you can leave the other Foot Modification in place; the spring action gives a real nice feel to the cam lock.