lathe setup

[Batfink44]

HI finally mt lathe arrived today, so like an excited little school boy I straight away assembled it forgetting about the broken fence which i was supposed to be fixing today AHEM

So lathe is all assembled correctly, checked and doouble checked.
There are 2 things that really would like to know

A, How can you be sure the swivel head stock is in line to the tailstock as the markers that were factory fitted are a mile out - coz there sticky label thingys.

B, How much presure should there be on the wood from the drive and tail centre.
i.e should i hammer the driver centre into the wood or just frimly press in by hand and how far in should the tail centre go into the wood and should the tail centre be lubed to stop friction burn on the wood??

ok thats alittle more than 2 things :lol: but please forgive a beginner for asking what im sure are quite simple questions

 

[Bodrighy]

Put a pronged drive in the head stock and bring the tail stock up. The two points should touch, if not it'll need adjusting. What lathe is it as how to do this may vary a bit? Some people hammer the pronged headstock into the wood, I don'tbother unless it is really hard wood as the pressure friom the tailstock usually pushes it on sufficiently. If it isn't bedded in properly it'll spin if you get a catch . This can (IME) happen fairly easilty in softwood. As far as pressure between the two is concenred you need just enough to hold the spindle securely, can't say how to measure this, I just use my own judgement. Pushing the wood onto the head with the tail is usually sufficient. Too much could damage the headstock I would imagine. I have a revolving tailstock, most are like this so I would imagine a bit of wax or oil might help if you have a fixed one.

Hope this helps. Anything wrong will soon be corrected by the more expert turners on the forum.

Pete

 

[TEP]

Hi Batfink.

Pete has more or less covered everything. You'll find that as you work, the wood will become slack, this is normal, and during spindle turning we all tighten the tail stock as we go. If you do a lot of spindle work you will find this becomes automatic after a while.

If a revolving tail centre didn't come with the lathe, (unusual these days) I would suggest the next thing you should buy is a revolving centre. There is nothing worse than trying to turn with a load of smoke coming from the end of the lathe. Believe me I'm not joking.

If you are using a fixed centre the traditional lubricant was beeswax.

 

[Batfink44]

Cheers Guys, and no my lathe didn't come with a live tail centre, I'll have to order one.. Nor did record send the bowl attachment. I also ordered a drill press with a mortice attachment the attachment didn't arrive either if that weren't bad enough i ordered some hand chisels and mallet - and they never turned up either.... In the end i got an apology and told the items were on back order - AARRGGHHH!!!!

As for the alignment problem i thought of lining up the tail with the head myself literally moments after posting I honestly felt a little daft.

So what started out to be a great day was a little deflating and to put the icing on the cake the dragon moaned about the fence so i had to carry on doing that as well :evil:
Still theres always tomorrow

 

[Woodmagnet]

So what started out to be a great day was a little deflating and to put the icing on the cake the WELSH dragon moaned about the fence so i had to carry on doing that as well :evil:
Still theres always tomorrow

Fixed it for you. :lol: