How to Make a Morse Taper

You can use your lathe to create a Morse taper.

Machine tapers are useful for holding tools onto a machine's spindle. There are many standardized types of tapers with Morse tapers being the most popular. These tapers are available for purchase, but can be created fairly easily out of wood using a wood turning lathe. The wood used should be a hardwood for durability. A table of the measurements needed to make any type of Morse taper can be found in the references section.

Things You'll Need

• Wood turning lathe
• Cylinder of hardwood
• Two calipers calibrated in millimeters
• Metric ruler
• Pencil
• Table of standardized sizes of Morse tapers
• Small spindle gouge
• Sandpaper

Instructions

1. Decide which size Morse taper you are going to create. Morse tapers sizes 1 and 3 are the most common for home use.

2. Put the cylinder into the wood turning lathe and secure it.

3. Mark the cylinder with the pencil 1 inch from one end.

4. Use the ruler to measure the distance labeled C in the table for your size Morse taper. Measure this from the first mark you made down the length of the cylinder.

5. Turn the cylinder in the lathe and use the gouge to slowly shave the wood from around the line you have drawn. The line you first drew 1 inch from the end of the cylinder needs to be shaved down, so that the caliper will read the diameter indicated as A on the table.

6. Shave the other line you drew so that the diameter is equivalent to the B value in the table. You measure this using a caliper.

7. Remove the wood in between these two lines, so that there is a steady, small incline from A to B. Leaving too much wood is better than taking too much. Try fitting the taper into your machine to check the incline.

8. Sand the taper smooth so that it fits snugly but smoothly into your machine.

Tips & Warnings

• Always wear safety goggles and gloves when working with machinery.

References

• Woods the Best: Morse Taper Sizes
• Wood Turner: Morse Taper 1