Sometimes things just don't progress the way I would like. Sometimes it is my fault, sometimes not. I have been waiting and waiting and waiting but with no taper lock hub on the horizon I chose to take matters into my own hands and make it myself. My vendor for various reasons has been unable to complete the work.

As the son of a tool and die maker, I was raised around machines and even worked a time during high school with my Dad in a job shop. It gave me a good basis for being independent. A long talk with him over the phone last week got me moving in the right direction again. He had less doubts than I did that I could do it myself.

Things took a different turn when my new 8" lathe chuck arrived from Enco the other day. The lathe needed something other than the puny 3" chuck it came with if it was expected to be able to spin up the 4" bar of tool steel. The machine is heavy enough at 600 pounds and has a big enough motor so why not?

The first thing required was a backing plate to support the 40 pound chuck on the spindle. For this I rough cut a piece of T6 aluminum 1" thick with a band saw. About 8 hours later I had the finished product in the photos! Since the backing plate was machined carefully on the lathe it has less than .003" runout and now an enoumous "bite" with the big chuck. Special thanks to the guys at Rankin Technical College in St. Louis for the Aluminum and the tool steel bar for the project!

Wasting no time I started work on the hub unit. It will consist of a weld in type taper ring and an innovative method of removal via a threaded rod I will be making when it is finished. The finished product will be 3-4 inches long and will attach to the spring plate (starter ring) on the transmission. I am awaiting the arrival of some carbide tooling from a supplier to do the precision boring necessary on both ends.

With a bit of luck this will all be done in the next few days and it will be time for the motor to go in. This will make my friend Dave very happy! He has been waiting to help me do the install.


Hub Ring and taperlock bushing

Rough cut of the hub unit