Aligning Centres???

[Alie Barnes]

Hi

I have a Record lathe with a swivel headstock. Ive just spent the last 30mins completely leveling out my lathe and bench which im very pleased with.

However im still worried that my centres arent aligned peoperly, how do i check to see if they are and what do i need to do to change it if they arent alligned??

Thanks

 

[paulm]

Hi Alie,

Put a revolving centre in the tailstock and slide the tailstock up to meet the headstock so that the revolving centre is close to the morse taper in the headstock spindle.

Unlock the headstock swivel. Lock the tailstock in position and then wind the revolving centre forwards slowly so that it enters the morse taper in the headstock and wind gently forwards while adjusting the headstock so that the revolving centre is central within the morse taper, then lock up the headstock and you're done !

You can then mark a vertical line from the bottom of the headstock down onto the base plate so that you have a mark to line up to next time without having to do all the above.

Cheers, Paul.

 

[greybeard]

Hi Alie

Paul has siad it all really, but just to say the same things in different ways.......

Check for alignment visually by bringing head and tail stocks close with respective tapers (mental blank - do I mean 'tapers'? I mean the pointy sharp bits!) almost touching. A quick check looking down from above, and then at 90 degrees to that (bend the knees and look straight across at them) gives you a 2 plane check.

If they align leave them like that!, but do use the opportunity as Paul describes to mark up a datum line on the head stock and it's base. Take your time and do a good job! Paint or engrave it - that will save you an unbelievable amount of re-adjuustment time in the future, especially if you regularly rotate the heastock out of alignment.

 

[paulm]

If you are feeling more adventurous still then, once you have set up the alignment as above, drill a hole between the base plate and bottom of headstock using say a 7mm drill bit and making it perhaps 20mm deep or so (not critical) so that part of the hole is in the baseplate and part in the bottom of the headstock, in a horizontal plane.

Then use the 7mm drill bit to make a pin by cutting off the fluted end and aralditing on a wooden knob.

Slackening off the headstock, aligning the two parts of the hole and inserting the pin before tightening up the headstock again should lock it precisely in position.

Read about this somewhere and did it with my Record CL3 a few years ago and worked great, but don't have it anymore so can't show you any pics I'm afraid!

Cheers, Paul.