Thread: 3 way lock, engineers or others help please

WCD's would be my preference

with the one from Bobl i think the two locking levers(for the sake of a better word...cos i dont know what else to call em) shown with movement arrows in last pic may become permanently distorted and bind ...the rotating nut locking mechanism will always be tightened to a differing torque accelerating the eventual binding?

Originally Posted by BobL

BJ's got it, but just in case.

Ok thanks guys

I was not sure if the white in your pic was material or a void.

Crystal clear now.

Well this looks a very viable proposition to me.

I thank you all for your input. I will let you know of my progress. As this is a wood lathe I may make up a model from timber first though drilling the 44.5 mm holes nice and true, straight and parallel may be an issue.


Dave the turning cowboy

turning wood into art

Originally Posted by eskimo

WCD's would be my preference

with the one from Bobl i think the two locking levers(for the sake of a better word...cos i dont know what else to call em) shown with movement arrows in last pic may become permanently distorted and bind ...the rotating nut locking mechanism will always be tightened to a differing torque accelerating the eventual binding?

Manufacture tolerance has to be good, but I've had a similar sort of locking mechanism to lock the wheels on my small Alaskan chain saw mill for the last 4 years without a problem.
The trick with these locking mechanism is they need only a light touch to provide massive clamping on the bars but this reduced amount of force may not be enough to lock the T-slot.

A simple design with a zero chance of binding is this one.
Easy to make too - just drill the holes through the metal block and then cut the block in half.
I just realised the horizontal void doesn't go through the middle of the bars but I think you get the picture.

Originally Posted by BobL

Manufacture tolerance has to be good, but I've had a similar sort of locking mechanism to lock the wheels on my small Alaskan chain saw mill for the last 4 years without a problem.
The trick with these locking mechanism is they need only a light touch to provide massive clamping on the bars but this reduced amount of force may not be enough to lock the T-slot.

A simple design with a zero chance of binding is this one.
Easy to make too - just drill the holes through the metal block and then cut the block in half.
I just realised the horizontal void doesn't go through the middle of the bars but I think you get the picture.

that looks better

Originally Posted by BobL

I think It could be made even simpler.

Hey have you been looking in my head? It's not really my idea, but it was what I would suggest. The record bar bed lathes used a simplified version of it. Not only is it easy it gives equal clamping on the bed and t slotted part, unlike the wedges which would be tight long before the t slot part would be.

Ew