found a part in my lathe, is it part of it ?

[grandads_shed]

just sorted out the hunting of the motor on my lathe, and whilst putting it back together i found this bit ,
is it a part of the lathe ? or is it not needed as it may be something that the old owner left on the bottom tray ??
the hole in the centre is threadded

 

[shenion]

If the narrow part fits between the ways, it may be a lower clamp for something like a steady rest.

 

[Fergus]

Is your tail stock back on yet?

 

[grandads_shed]

yep tail stock is on the lathe,

to get the picture to scale size wise, the hole in the middle is about 4mm dia,

i have looked around the lathe but can not find any place that it could fit ,

 

[madkayaker]

its a spare bit. looks a lot like a T nut to me

 

[grandads_shed]

its a spare bit. looks a lot like a T nut to me

it do fit in the bed grooves, so i am wondering if its what shenion said [ If the narrow part fits between the ways, it may be a lower clamp for something like a steady rest.]

 

[madkayaker]

Could well be for a fixed stedy

 

[Fazerruss]

What lathe do you have?

 

[grandads_shed]

one of the mini lathes,

 

[BrokenBiker]

that looks very similar to my chester, I don't have the part you found though, but I also don't have a steady rest.

 

[grandads_shed]

they are made under several names, mine is a amadeal ,but have seen a few on youtube under different names

 

[Pete.]

It looks like either a steady rest clamp, a tailstock clamp, a carriage way gib or a toolpost tee nut. Not much else it could be if it's part of your machine.

If you have the steady rest clamp already, look under the middle of the carriage to see if there's a bolt hanging down.

 

[Perry Owens]

Looks like a bit of a carriage lock
http://www.amadeal.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww.amadeal.co.uk%2facatalog%2fMini-Lathe.html&WD=carriage&PN=Mini_Lathe_Carriage_Lock.html%23a463#a463
If it is there will be a hole drilled through the back of the saddle.

 

[grandads_shed]

Looks like a bit of a carriage lock
http://www.amadeal.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww.amadeal.co.uk%2facatalog%2fMini-Lathe.html&WD=carriage&PN=Mini_Lathe_Carriage_Lock.html%23a463#a463
If it is there will be a hole drilled through the back of the saddle.

looks like the part and right size as well.
i will look later to see if there is a hole drilled through the saddle. the other part of it is not there,

 

[Perry Owens]

Since you have the lathe it would be easy to make the missing part. I find that mine does add a bit of extra rigidity to the system when facing.
Another useful add-on is a lever lock tailstock - saves all that fiddling about with a spanner.