bassfishingpro
Member
Just recently I noticed the the tailstock does not line directly up with the headstock. Is there any way to fix this, or am in need of another lathe
THanks
John
THanks
John
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Wildman
Member
Need to know make & model and how old is the lathe.
Druid
Member
John,
Some lathes can be slightly adjusted, I had a Turncrafter I owned a few years back. It was dead center when I bought it and a year later worked its way off center. I called PSI and Joe walked the through a realignment process but it still did not align to my satisfaction. Since it was still under warranty they replaced the tailstock and that solved the problem. I've owned my Jet for three years now and had no problems (knock on wood... no pun intended! :wink
. It would help others (when they give advice) to know the manufacture and model of your lathe and what type of center are you using.
Best of Luck,
Jim
Some lathes can be slightly adjusted, I had a Turncrafter I owned a few years back. It was dead center when I bought it and a year later worked its way off center. I called PSI and Joe walked the through a realignment process but it still did not align to my satisfaction. Since it was still under warranty they replaced the tailstock and that solved the problem. I've owned my Jet for three years now and had no problems (knock on wood... no pun intended! :wink
. It would help others (when they give advice) to know the manufacture and model of your lathe and what type of center are you using.Best of Luck,
Jim
mickr
Member
Yes all of the above..when it's locked down, how far off is it? If not too much, it's really quite easy to shim the tailstock (or headstock) to help it align..I have one lathe that I just put a piece of sandpaper under the base..it has worked for over 10 yrs..simple
KenV
Member
John -- there were two issues in your original message -- the answer to one - do you need another lathe -- that answer is yes, of course you need another lathe. Every turner should have more lathes. That answer is independent of tuning up your current lathe.
The measurement and adjustment is a function of a lot of variables. Clean is one of them. The object is for the alignment of the center of the headstock spindle to be continued through the tailstock centerline. Lathes sold in the US are european designs that control from the face of the center of the ways laterally, and the surface of the ways vertically. The sloppiest (least control and most "slop") are those with a couple of steel tubes that the tail stock slides on, and the best are machined ductile iron.
This is a tradeoff now between how much error is there vs how much effort to reduce it -- and the accumulation of crud, sawdust, bed corrosion, chips, ect all contribute to accretion of errors. How you measure is important because a sloppy fit of tooling into the head stock and tailstock measure as alignment errors that are attributable to technique and tooling rather than the lathe. Many think that a drill chuck that they get for 30 buck is somthing more that a sloppy fit and runouts exceed 0.05 on one of mine. A good chuck costs up to 10 time more to reduce the error. (note that is 50 thousands almost a 1/16th of an inch)
I have to start with a damn good cleaning to eliminate the crud, chips - especially in tapers and in the ways and tailstock. Cleaning and inspection of tooling ( amazing what dropping a MT onto concrete will do for adding runout at the spindle - and that little burr gets magnified).
So tell us more about what you have -- remember that paint and lipstick on a pig still leave you with a pig.
The measurement and adjustment is a function of a lot of variables. Clean is one of them. The object is for the alignment of the center of the headstock spindle to be continued through the tailstock centerline. Lathes sold in the US are european designs that control from the face of the center of the ways laterally, and the surface of the ways vertically. The sloppiest (least control and most "slop") are those with a couple of steel tubes that the tail stock slides on, and the best are machined ductile iron.
This is a tradeoff now between how much error is there vs how much effort to reduce it -- and the accumulation of crud, sawdust, bed corrosion, chips, ect all contribute to accretion of errors. How you measure is important because a sloppy fit of tooling into the head stock and tailstock measure as alignment errors that are attributable to technique and tooling rather than the lathe. Many think that a drill chuck that they get for 30 buck is somthing more that a sloppy fit and runouts exceed 0.05 on one of mine. A good chuck costs up to 10 time more to reduce the error. (note that is 50 thousands almost a 1/16th of an inch)
I have to start with a damn good cleaning to eliminate the crud, chips - especially in tapers and in the ways and tailstock. Cleaning and inspection of tooling ( amazing what dropping a MT onto concrete will do for adding runout at the spindle - and that little burr gets magnified).
So tell us more about what you have -- remember that paint and lipstick on a pig still leave you with a pig.