Flogging a dead horse

[tomthumbtom8]

I think I'm now flogging a dead horse

I've just fitted the Junior chuck to my Lathe with the pen mandrel I bought from Ebay and It's not running central at all

do I buy a new live centre and then see if it is any better. I have checked the motor shaft and I think this is bent by .03mm I know this is not precision engineering but I was hopping the lathe would run true.

Is the main shaft on a wood lathe replaceable??

what would you do

Tom

 

[Robbo3]

Can't remember what lathe you have but IIRC it has no morse taper.

I think you probably mean the headstock shaft. The motor shaft normally carries a three or four speed pully. If that were bent it would only cause lumpy running &/or vibration. It would take a serious wallop to bend the headstock shaft & although possible I would have thought unlikely.

Is the chuck running true? Chuck a twist drill in one of the collets & using the rest close to, & parallel to the drill, turn the chuck by hand to see if there is any variation in the gap.

Do the tailstock centre & drill poimt line up, both vertically & along the bed?

Either of the above would cause problems using the pen mandrel.

IMHO you would be better off saving up & getting a better lathe although if you manage to get this problem sorted out it should be able to spin wood enough for you to practice.

Robbo

 

[chipmunk]

Oh hell Tom - I feel bad because I think I sent you down the Junior chuck route!

As Robbo says the first check would be to see if the JC is mating with the reference face on the lathe shaft - this should be the face of the step behind the threaded section.

Is it mucky? If so, carefully scrape off the crud and try again.

If it is still out of true then you either have a bad JC or as you say a bent lathe shaft. You have another chuck, right? Is that also out of true? If so then it's unlikely to be the JC.

HTH
Jon