Pens out of round

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is it a lathe problem for sure? I have over tightened the nut on the mandrel and got that and have also put to much pressure from the tail stock and got the same problem. I know I seen something on here about a "lathe aligner" if you will but dont remember in what section.
 
Hi Len

Thanks for the input. It's not the mandrel I aways check the mandrel nut once in a while to make sure it's not over tight.
 
You mention that you want to align the lathe, how old is it (how likely that it is wear), what seems to be out of align--tailstock is high, low or back or front --when the tailstock is locked down.
 
It's not old 2 years, I just notice last night while assembling some pens after pressing in the parts of course. I haven't look at the lathe yet got too fustrated.
 
Check runout on the live center before you mess with the spindle. Cheap live centers sometimes have a lot of runout and can throw the blank out of round even with a good mandrel. You might also try turning between centers to see if they are still out of round. If you turn between centers and get no out of round then you can pretty much bet it's your mandrel.
:cool::cool::cool:
 
Bushings are another possibility--some holes are not centered. (Yeah, I didn't believe it either, til I tested a few)
 
If your pen mandrel does not easily fit into the end of the live center you may need to adjust the mandrel shaft through slight bending to make it true. You may just be over tightening the mandrel nut.

Dennis
Bohol, Philippines
 
This brings up a point with me, I use a mandrel saver live center. I sometimes get out of round pen bodies too.

Would this be "smutz" in the tube? I know it could be bushings but some are round some are not. That seems to indicate that the holes are centered.

There is very little play in the mandrel to bushing holes as they are tight to get on.

Any other ideas?
 
BlackPearl said:
This brings up a point with me, I use a mandrel saver live center. I sometimes get out of round pen bodies too.

Would this be "smutz" in the tube? I know it could be bushings but some are round some are not. That seems to indicate that the holes are centered.

There is very little play in the mandrel to bushing holes as they are tight to get on.

Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

If by smutz you mean glue in the tube, yes, that will cause out of round because the bushing is no longer sitting center in the tube but slightly pushed to one side.
 
BlackPearl said:
This brings up a point with me, I use a mandrel saver live center. I sometimes get out of round pen bodies too.

Would this be "smutz" in the tube? I know it could be bushings but some are round some are not. That seems to indicate that the holes are centered.

There is very little play in the mandrel to bushing holes as they are tight to get on.

Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

The mandrel saver has slop because the hole is somewhat bigger than the mandrel shaft if we are talking about the same thing. Put a live center on the tailstock and bring it up to the tip of a drive center on the headstock. You will be able to see if the points touch spot on or if they are misaligned. Start from there. If the points are spot on then the problem is probably the mandrel saver.
 
I think some of you are on the right track, I was less than stellar with squaring the blanks. The ends are little lopped sided. I need to make sanding jig.
 
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