harbor freights tail spindle

It looks like you have just posted your mesage Tom and by rights I should sit back and let some of the more knowledgable answer your question, but what the heck...

If your tailstock insert is a 'mt2' then it will come out. On my lathe, a Jet, to get mine out I turn the hand wheel and retract what I think you are calling the 'tail stock centre cup' into the housing until it hits a point of resistance. I then turn the wheel in the same direction to overcome the resistance and the m-taper is forced out of the housing.

fwiw Tom

On my old HF lathe, you had to run a rod in from the outside and give it a tap to loosen the cup center. Is the spindle hollow?

Some tail stock/center combinations are self ejecting and some are not. It is self-ejecting if you can, as suggested in someone's message, crank the hand crank counter clockwise (looking toward the headstock) and the center (usually a live center for woodturning) is forced out of the morse taper.

If the taper on the center is short or the taper inside the tailstock is long, this won't work.

As suggested below, if the tailstock spindle is hollow clear through, then you can use a knock-out bar.

If not --

You need to find something the right width to wedge between the back of the center and the nose of the tailstock so that when you retract the tailstock it will force the center out of the taper.

Hard to explain but easy to do...

Bill

Gerald Ross wrote:

Tom, the easy way to find out is merely to back the tail stock all the way back and see if the live center pops out.

You did not mention which lathe you had. If it is the 34706 the live center is definitely removable. Again, just back the wheel up and the live center will pop out.

Deb