Repair and Remanufacture of Live and Dead Tailstocks

Here at Riten we can get your tailstock back in working order, upgrade it to handle more weight or redesign it to better suit your application. In the case of repairs, whether you have a live tailstock or a dead tailstock, a common problem is a worn ID taper. While it’s relatively simple to grind OD tapers, ID tapers require more specialized equipment, and they’re considerably more difficult to measure. We’re one of the few companies that can grind ID tapers just as well as OD tapers.  When you know what you’re doing, repairing a dead tailstock is all about grinding.

In comparison to a dead tailstock, repairing a live tailstock adds another level of complexity.  Repairing live tailstocks is more than just replacing bearings.  In addition to selecting the correct class of bearing, the bearing seats and shoulders must be checked for size, perpendicularity and concentricity.  Grinding, plating, and grinding seats and shoulders are just more tasks we can take care of.

We can also reengineer and remanufacture existing tailstocks. We can replace a dead tailstock with a live one, or upgrade the bearing assembly in a tailstock, thereby enabling the tool to handle more weight. In many cases, a manufacturer may have one machine with a different taper than all of the others. Instead of buying centers unique to the orphan machine, we can simply convert the taper to match the rest of the machines in the shop.

Machines can range in size from something as big as your desk to something that weighs hundreds of thousands of pounds. We’re here to work with your machine’s tailstock regardless of the size. If the tailstock is small enough, you can load it into a box or onto a pallet and send it our way. For those large machines where parts are 60 or even 80 feet long and weigh thousands of pounds, sending the tailstock to us ceases to be a viable option. In that case, it takes a more creative approach.

For example, for one such customer we went to their facility, pulled the quill out of their tailstock, and took measurements of both the quill and the tailstock. We went back to our facility, engineered a new quill, built it, assembled it, tested it and shipped it. Once it arrived, we then went back to their facility. We pulled their old quill out once again, honed the tailstock, and fit the new quill into the machine. We arrived Monday morning, and by Thursday morning the customer was running off parts. Instead of the machine being down months, it was down for a matter of days.

We’re here to work with you. No matter what the application or the size of your machine, our tailstock repair and remanufacturing services will get your tailstock into the shape you need.