Alignment of centers on new lathe

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UWCBrad

UWCBrad

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I picked up a Nova Comet II lathe last week and as I was setting it up I checked the centers. I know that the ideal is perfect alignment, but is that realistic?
This is a top view of mine
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Do I call customer service, or is there a way to line them up?
 
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No I did not level the lathe, I made a stand for it, and it looked good so I never thought about it. Since the offset is front to back, maybe the lathe is out of parallel. Will have to check that next
 
Not sure how to imbed photos yet I guess. So I attached the photo. At least I hope I did
 

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if the tailstock has any play in it you may be able to line it up using that. Mine does, and I do.
 
I suspect leveling the lathe will make that little bit go away. Check level both along and across the bed.

My big lathe has best fit when I push the tailstock against the back and lock it down. Find the best and be consistent in doing the same thing every time with you lathe.
 
This is an easy check to get a rough idea if there is flexing of the cast iron bed causing the problem. You mentioned making a lathe stand. If the lathe is bolted down, loosen/remove the bolts on the TS end. Put spacers under one side of the TS so that the other is floating (It might take 1/8"~1/4" or so). Now check the center points alignment. Did it change, get better, get worse? If it got better, you will want to use spacers on that side, and bolt it back down. If the alignment is worse, move spacer to other side of TS and check alignment again. There should be improvement, so use the spacer on that side and bolt it down. If the stand itself can flex, you could do a similar check under the legs of the stand without unbolting the lathe. Just use spacers under the feet of the lathe to see if it affects the alignment, and do some leveling to get the desired alignment.
 
I copied and pasted the following from the Nova Comet II owners manual:

5. Place the Drive Spur Center into the Headstock and the Live Center into the Tailstock. Gently slide
the tailstock up to the Headstock until the two points nearly touch. They should align. If not, see
page 25 for alignment procedures. Also consider loosening the bolts holding the headstock to the
bed and aligning the headstock so the two points, head and tailstocks, align vertically and
horizontally.
 
Mea Culpa.

If that's the manufacturer's recommendation then I am not going to disagree. I was thinking more along the lines of what would happen with a misaligned spindle on a metal lathe. Got a little ahead of myself.

Bill
 
Yeah ... on a wood lathe, it isn't nearly so critical to have the headstock perfectly aligned with the lathe bed and ways... for a wood lathe, merely having the headstock aligned with the tailstock is all that is required, and even then, it doesn't have to be perfect to still work perfectly fine.



First, make sure that the lathe is completely level .... a twisting of the lathe bed can cause that kind of mis-alignment easily.

Next, I would check the TAILSTOCK to see if the alignment can be adjusted from that end first .... if it cannot, THEN fiddle with the headstock.

After that, I'ld turn a test bar and see if things are "turning out all right" (pun fully intended). Just take a piece of scrap wood and turn a true cylinder (between centers) that is equally sized on either end (use calipers) .... swap it end for end and turn the lathe back on .... you will notice any wobble at all in the test bar if it is not perfectly aligned. The test bar is intended for testing how well the headstock and tailstock are aligned when they are NOT nearly touching ... :)

Now ... if there is wobble or not, turn the lathe back off (or do these next steps very deliberately and slowly, making sure not to let the tailstock slip back and let the test bar go flying) and unlock the tailstock ... shift it to the back (push it all the way back) and test for the wobble ... and then shift it to the front (pull it towards you) and test for wobble ... the lathe will probably align better in one of those positions.

If it doesn't, try keeping the lathe turned on and very gently and carefully moving the tailstock forwards and back till the wobble is as reduced as you can get it. Remember NOT to back the tailstock off ... just push it towards the back of the lathe and pull to the front WITHOUT pushing the tailstock to the RIGHT.

Once you've found the best position for alignment of the tailstock on the ways, you can lock it in position and mark the tailstock for the addition of shims on the lathe bed or tailstock bearing assembly to keep that alignment. Shims should be made of somewhat durable material, like brass or aluminum shim stock. Secure in place with a permanent adhesive, if you can.
 
Nova sells a double ended morse taper to use to assure the headsrock and tailstock share the same alignment. It is easy to have them match at one location while pointing in different directions.

Good tool to have or borrow when changing headstock positions.
 
Thanks
It took me about 15 minutes to adjust the mounting and the points are aligned.

As was said, I wish all things were that easy to fix.
 
My old delta lathe had same problem until locked the tailstock down! Other than what has already been said would clean out Morse Tapers (internally) and see what happens. Would do same to spur & live centers. Might be just rust inhibitors or dust not allowing centers to seat properly.
 
Glad you got it dialed in. Ken was right on the money....and that is what the manual says to correct improper alignment.

Note: If you look at the exploded view for the Comet, you will see that on this lathe, the headstock attaches to the end of the bed....not on top of the bed as with other lathes. The headstock does not adjust in the same fashion.
 
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