Headstock/Tailstock alighment

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pmpartain

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I have the Craftsman 21715 lathe. It's a couple years old. I just discovered that I have an alignment problem. The tailstock center appears to be about 1/32 higher than the headstock. I started to drill on the lathe and found that the drill bit does not point at the center of the work. There does not appear to be any adjustments on the lathe to fix this problem. Only thing I can tell to do is put shim stock under the pivoting headstock. There is also a lot of side to side slop in the tailstock. I guess you can twist the tailstock on the lathe bed. Maybe when it clamps down, it self centers, but I'm not sure. Any suggestions other than buying a another lathe?
 
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I can, but I'd have to glue some shims to the bottom. This would also tilt the axis if the tailstock. The drill bit would be pointing downward and not level with the lathe bed. Maybe not enough to matter?
 
Oops my mind missed the drilling part (though I read it). For turning it might work but not while drilling. Sorry.

Can the head stock be shimmed?
 
I thought about that. Seems like it would be awfully easy to get things out of alignment. I can't believe there is no adjustment ability on the thing. It's not off by much, but I can't drill in the center of the work as it is.
 
Mark,

I won't be surprised if this starts a firestorm, but here's my 2 cents:

When I drill (and I do peppermills that need 10" long holes), I rarely lock down the tailstock. Move the drill bit up to the center of the spinning object and it will FIND center. Then, push firmly, but evenly on the bottom of the tailstock, right next to the lathe bed (ways). The drill bit will continue to follow center of the spinning object.

IF you are trying to drill ebony-forget all this, it's too hard and the tailstock needs to be secured. Otherwise, it pretty-much works.[:D][:D]
 
I agree with your original thought and that is to shim the headstock, on all four corners to bring it up in alignment with tailstock. If you can find it, 28 gauge sheet metal is .015" thick and would make a good spacer.
 
I'm sure there may be some problems, but to date, I haven't pivoted that thing once. I simply haven't turned anything that big. Done pens for the most part. I've tried other stuff liek rolling pins, goblets, small bowls, twig pots, but I haven't forked over the cash to do a really big bowl yet. One thing about that lathe is that the heastock is heavy. Still has a vibration and other problems, but it's a heavy thing to pick up. I got a piece of shim stock stuck under the front side last night without too much trouble. Thing lined up almost exactly. I'm guessing when I get some on the backside, the front will come back down a little, but maybe not too much. Thanks to all for the input.
 
Several years ago when I purchased my original Nova3000(the pulley driven one with the huge motor hanging off it) I had pretty much the same problem as you are now. Mine was more like about 1/16" off though. I tried everything I knew to fix it, ended up calling the main HQ of where I purchased it, was transferred finally to the techie who worked on these things....anyway, seems when it was put together wasn't quite aligned correctly. The large diameter mounting pin that holds the headstock on the body has a tapered hole in it, where the long threaded pin from the side that you loosen to allow the headstock to pivot fits. The mounting pin was turned ever so slightly that it didn't allow the threaded pin to align fully, and thus whenever I tightened that pin to secure the headstock from pivoting, it jacked up one side of the headstock putting it out of alignment.

Long story short, took the whole darn thing apart, put it back together correctly, and it aligned perfectly.
 
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