I am thinking of springing for a tail stock swing away attachment for my big Powermatic mustard monster. But I often use a second banjo back near the tail stock to hold a modified Elbow Tool that I use for constrained hollowing. So my worry is: when the tail stock is in the swing-away position, will it interfere with this second banjo? Another way of asking my question is this: with the tail stock in the swing-away position , would a flat board placed flat on the bed of the lathe at the tail stock end bang into the tail stock?
I imagine it somewhat depends on which swing-away device you get, but I don't think it will interfere. I have the "Down-n-Out" from JT Turning Tools on my Jet 1642 (a smaller version of the PM 3520b) and the tailstock is well down and out of the way of the bed when in the down position.
Don is right. There are two versions out there. One simply swings the tailstock back, which to my thinking is just about useless. The other swings the tailstock out and down. Now that's worth the money. Powermatic now has one on sale and JT Tools has one.
I purchased the Powermatic swing-away in November and am quite pleased with it. It swings the tailstock away and down. I've placed a piece of plywood on my lathe and tried to capture a decent photo showing the ample clearance that's available with the tailstock on the swing-away. Over 2 inches of clearance and I'm not able to use the full range of motion because I'm up against a wall.
When I got mine it was a bit less expensive but worth every penny. In fact, just the extra length of the device added to the end of my lathe is most often enough to park the tailstock far enough out of the way to avoid the dreaded "Turners Elbow" without actually lowering the tailstock.
