Jet alignment issues

[woodmarc]

While i'm laid up, I thought I would give the lathe a bit of a cleaning and a lube. I noticed, when I brought the tail stock up to the head stock to so that I could clean the bed rails, that the tail stock had a lot of play. I would say as much as a 1/16" of play on either side of the headstock. is this normal? and could this be the culprit behind the intermittant problem that I am having with out of round pens?
I will have to investigate this further. but does any one have a suggetion on how to reduce ir remove this play?

My lathe is jet mini vs. It's less than a year old. should i contact jet?

TIA

 

[whatwoodido]

I assume that the play is after you have tightened it down. When loose the play is fine and actually can help you center the tailstock. If you have play when it is tighted down, is it the quill that has the play? If so is the play still there when the quill is locked? I have noticed that the quill on my mini is not as solid as on my full size lathe. On my large lathe I often do not lock the quill as it stays pretty solidly where I extend it to. As I use a cup drive so I have to extend the quill quite often for spindle turningto maintain adequate friction. I would never be able to do this with the mini.

Drew

 

[woodmarc]

the play is while the tail stock is loose, I just expected that there would be less play between the rails. Once I tighten it all down, I'm good. Nothing moves.

So with that in mind, how do I know that the tailstock is in proper alignment when I bring it up to the mandrel? In my mind, if the tailstock had little or no play, then a slight misalignment/bend in the mandrel shaft with be nullified or at least minimized. Am I wrong in this assumption?