Shopsmith owners help!

[doeringr]

Can any of you shopsmith owners describe your set up for me? I've turned several pens now (8) and the live center that I'm using from PSI already shows wear from the end of the mandrel. It's a 60 degree #2 LC. It runs great, but only after a few pens, the mandrel has etched a "ring" around the tip of the center. My fear is that it will eventually wear the tip right off.
The center is only 19 bucks so it's not a huge investment. However, if only after 8-10 pens it wears the tip off---I'm in trouble.
What live centers do you guys use on the Shopsmith and am I wrong in understanding that the mandrel requires a 60 degree live center?
HELP!

 

[Penmonkey]

I had the same thing happen to me on my shop smith. The reason it does that is because the shaft is not in line with the live center. I tried a lot of things to fix it but I could not. The bad thing is that over time it will bend you mandrel and your pens will be out of round.

 

[wicook]

Travis is right that it's an alignment problem. The good news is that it can probably be solved. On the Shopsmith tailpiece, loosen the eccentric MT2 holder, then rotate it until you have horizontal alignment with the centre of your chuck and tighten the set screw. Next, loosen the clamp on the tailstock legs at the sockets (the knurled bar between the rails) and raise the tailstock to align it vertically with the centre of your chuck and tighten it down. There will probably still be some flex in the tailstock position after it's tight, but it's pretty minimal. I suppose you could shim between the tailstock legs and the sockets to get the remaining flex out of it. This has worked pretty well for me and I'm no longer turning eccentric pens... [] At least not most of the time... [:I]

 

[KenV]

I suggest that you center the live center on the mark in the middle of the 5/8 headstock mounting (or mount the drive center and match the point in the middle of that). Bring the headstock end over right next to the live center. You need to match both horizontal and vertical alignments. There are stop collars on the tubes for the tail stock that can be locked down. Get that close and loosen up both set screws on the excentric. move to alignment looking down vertically. Then check the horicontal. Iterate.

Best suggestion for mounting a standard pen mandrel has come from Chris Hendley - use the router mounting fitting made for 1/4 inch shaft router bits. Runs with much less runout than a drill chuck or the PSI fitting.

Look to get matchup closer than a sheet of paper thickness (0.003 or better). Take your time and lock down the settings when you are there.