Live Centers
Keep your workpiece spinning while staying supported when machining. These live centers spin with your piece to reduce friction between their point and your material. For smooth rotation, these centers turn on lubricated bearings. The bearings are enclosed to protect against chips and liquid. With a hardened body and point for extra strength and wear resistance, these live centers will hold up, use after use. Use them in the tailstock with manual or CNC lathes.
Precision centers wobble less than standard live centers for six to eight times greater accuracy as they spin.
Extended point and extended-cone point centers make it easier to machine complex shapes and features as they give you extra tool clearance for CNC machining. Extended-cone point centers are multipurpose—use the extended point to support solid workpieces or the cone point to support hollow workpieces such as pipes and tubes.
Bull-nose point centers have a wide head to hold large-diameter hollow pipe and tubing. Choose an 80° point angle for more contact area and less vibration than a 60° point angle.
TIR (total indicated runout) is a measure of rotational smoothness—the lower the value, the less wobble a rotating tool will have and the more accurate it will be.
| Morse Taper Number | Max. Workpiece Cap., lbs. | Max. Speed, rpm | TIR (Total Indicated Runout) Accuracy | Point Dia. | Head Dia. | Point Lg. | Overall Lg. | Point Angle  | Material | Each | |
Standard Point | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 460 | 5,000 | 0.0003" | 0.7" | 1 9/16" | 7/8" | 4 47/64" | 60° | Hardened Steel | 0000000 | 0000000 |
Precision Standard Point | |||||||||||
| 2 | 725 | 6,000 | 0.00005" | 0.875" | 1 3/4" | 1 1/64" | 5 19/64" | 60° | Hardened Steel | 0000000 | 000000 |
Precision Extended Point | |||||||||||
| 2 | 375 | 6,000 | 0.00005" | 0.88" | 1 3/4" | 1 11/32" | 5 5/8" | 60° | Hardened Steel | 0000000 | 000000 |
Extended-Cone Point—Multipurpose | |||||||||||
| 2 | 330 | 5,000 | 0.0001" | 2.25" | __ | 2 17/64" | 5 3/4" | 60° | Hardened Steel | 0000000 | 000000 |
Bull-Nose Point—For Pipe and Tubing | |||||||||||
| 2 | 2,000 | 2,500 | 0.00015" | 4" | __ | 3 29/32" | 6 27/32" | 60° | Hardened Steel | 0000000 | 000000 |
Dead Centers
Insert these in your headstock to support your workpiece when machining between centers. Unlike live centers, dead centers don’t spin freely, so they give you a fixed point to stabilize your material. You can also use them in the tailstock to support the end of the workpiece when friction isn’t a concern. Made of through-hardened 52100 alloy steel—a material originally developed for bearings—these centers have exceptional hardness, strength, and wear resistance. That means you'll have to replace them less often than centers made of low-quality steel. You can also apply high-pressure grease on the point to reduce friction and wear.
Pipe and tubing centers hold large-diameter, hollow workpieces. Also known as bull-nose centers.
Carbide-tipped hardened steel dead centers have better wear resistance than hardened steel dead centers. They’re ideal for high-volume work and holding highly abrasive and hard materials.