Lathe not in line....

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MatthewZS

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Joined
Jul 22, 2010
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482
Location
Georgetown Texas
So I happened to discover earlier today that my tailstock is not on center. I put a live center and dead center in my lathe, ran the tailstock up close and the points to not meet. I checked with another live center, I made sure to clean out the Tapers and still the point on the tailstock sits just a milimeter and a half or so in front of the dead center on the headstock. I CANNOT twist it back into place. What in heck do I do??
 
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not sure what lathe and model you have but you should be able to loosen the head stock and
shim it to be parallel. i would make sure your live center is good, the one that usually comes with a lathe are not that great. spin it to see it does not wobble.
 
It's a Rikon Multi Speed mini, not sure the model number and the live center is a good quality aftermarket that I bought to use with a pen mandrel.


Cool didn't think about taking the headstock loose. I won't need to shim it though, just need to twist it slightly.


Thanks.
 
Steve -- depends on the lathe -- some come with good live centers- Most come without 60 degree tips in the live centers (Noval has that with the live center and Oneway/Powermatic live centers have a pen turners tip that can be easily added).

Matthew -- Did you use your 60 degree live center tip??? If you did not, and have not been using a 60 degree live center - those tips get distorted easily. Some times that get mangled twisted and mutilated.

Most american/european market lathes are aligned against the inside of the ways. some tailstocks have a fair amount of play and will be in better alignment if pushed or pulled against the ways before locking it down. Woodlathes do not have the need to be in as tight an alignment as metal lathes for the most part -- mandrel turning being an application where better alignment is mutch better.

Shimming that much will not be easy as the shims need to be done so the axis of the spindle matches the axis if the tailstock. (shimming one end of the headstock to make the point align, but having the spindle pointed to the cieling is not going to be effective,)

Or you can move to turning between centers which is much more tolerant of alignment because the dead/live centers can function as "universal joints" for minor alignment misses. Fits at the end of the blanks becomes very very important if there are alignment anomolies as you do not want the blank-bushing connection to be part of the "universal joint" movement.

some of the big lathes with moving heads and beds have can be a challenge to get back into alignment. My big lathe has a movable bed and can be 5-10 thousand of an inch out of perfect alignment easily. Your 1.5mm (or 3/ 32 inch or 0.090 inch) is more than desirable, and is comperable to lathes of many years ago --

Make and Model?????
 
I have a Jet 1642 and have found that if the feet are not level the alignment will be off. I put the tail stock up so the two points are next to each other and lock it down. Then adjust the feet to make the two points right on.
 
+1 for what degelnett said. I also have the Jet 1642 EVS2 and have found that non-level legs will twist the bed enough to throw the alignment off. The good part is that it's really easy to correct.

Dave
 
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