A carriage lock for the Harbor Freight 8×14
I’ve been asked about my lathe’s carriage lock a few times over they years, and just the other day I was asked about it dimensions. Thus, I thought now might be a good time to do a little write up on it. The first thing to note is that this was a completely off the cuff design, so almost none of the dimensions need to be exact to work.
- The M8 threaded section measured from the bottom of the head is 0.900″ long.
- The bottom section of the head is 0.489″ in diameter, and 0.361″ heigh.
- The top section of the head is 0.388″ in diameter, and 0.388″ heigh.
- The cross bar is 0.216″ in diameter and 3.835″ long.
- Both ends of the cross bar are tapped M4, and short M4 socket head caps crews are used to ensure it doesn’t slide out of the head.
The only really important thing you need to do to the carriage lock is adjust the length of the M8 to ensure it looks up in the appropriate location. Ideally you want it to be locked down tight when its parallel to the cross slide. If it’s parallel when locked, then turning it 90 degrees counter clockwise and it should be fully unlocked. If You mount it, and it doesn’t line up appropriately rechunk the body in the lathe and trim a few thousands off the bottom of the M8 section. repeat the trimming process until the lock lines up correctly.
