Sherline Crosslide Stop.

 

This describes making a depth stop for the crossslide on a Sherline lathe.

You can buy a left hand stop for newer Sherline lathes but, for repetitive work such as turning stanchions, it is very helpful to have a depth stop for the crossslide, something that Sherline does not offer.

 

Sherline does offer a follower rest and it seemed to me that one could easily make a depth stop that mounted in the same way that the follower rest does.  If you take a look at the follower rest instructions you can see that the follower rest has a fork at the front with a set screw in it to bolt to a flange on the lathe saddle  (instructions figure 1)

So I milled out a 6" piece of 1 ¼ square aluminum bar stock to make a saddle depth stop that would mount in the same was as the follower rest does.

The above figure shows the whole depth stop.  The stem is about ½" square, the holder for the brass rod that serves as a stop is about 1 ¼" long. The fingers on the left that surround the saddle flange are about .4" thick with a 0.320 wide slot.  The outside finger is drilled and tapped for a 6-32 cap screw.

The figure above shows the fingers and the cap screw.  The fingers are about 0.4" long.

The figure above shows the offset for the fingers from the trunk. The offset is 0.35".  Note the cutback to clear the lathe bed.

 

The above figure shows the brass depth stop (a 3/16" brass rod) and the knurled knob with a 8-32 stem used to clamp the dept stop in place.

The final figure above shows the installed depth stop.