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Lathe alignment question.

Erik Cortina

Team Lapua Brux Borden Captain
I can buy a new lathe for cheap, but the headstock is out of line .004" in 6", is that something that can be fixed or even something that I can live with? It's not for barrel work, mainly to turn small stuff around the house and to get my feet wet learning how to run a lathe.
Can a workpiece be aligned with a 4 jaw chuck or is it not that easy?

Thanks in advance.
 
Hi Erick, I would not wory about about .004 in 6in for turning short
stuff. 4jaws kinda suck but it is a good learning tool.I started on the lathe at age 7 damm 53 yrs on the lathe ;D Have fun.
John R Perkins Jr
www.21stcenturyshooting.com
 
Erick, What brand of lathe? .0004 or .004 out of alignment? how did you come up with this number. I'm in the process of re building an old South Bend 10" and it's .000 on the vertical and .0002 on the horizontal at 12"........... jim
 
johara1 said:
Erick, What brand of lathe? .0004 or .004 out of alignment? how did you come up with this number. I'm in the process of re building an old South Bend 10" and it's .000 on the vertical and .0002 on the horizontal at 12"........... jim
Click to expand...

It's .004". I was told that by the current owner.

I wish I could find an old lathe in good shape, but with my knowledge level at this point I would not know what I was looking at.

I'm going to buy this lathe and learn on it and then upgrade to a bigger/better lathe.
 
Erik,.

how much is the budget? Just being curious.. hopefully we can point you in the right direction..

Randy

Here are a couple of good sites to join.. lots of good info

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/
 
Froggy, thanks for the links.

Erik, i have some of the same questions as you so I will be 'looking over your shoulder' on this thread.
 
Erik, Can't believe it's that far out but if it's from China it very well could be. I don't know your price range but, buy once. I see some nice ones on Ebay not that far away. and watch on pratical machinist, you may find something. I think i know where you are going with this, maybe chamber your own barrels? That lathe isn't in the ball park...... jim
 
johara1 said:
Erik, Can't believe it's that far out but if it's from China it very well could be. I don't know your price range but, buy once. I see some nice ones on Ebay not that far away. and watch on pratical machinist, you may find something. I think i know where you are going with this, maybe chamber your own barrels? That lathe isn't in the ball park...... jim
Click to expand...

No, I will not be chambering my own barrels since I love accurate guns! ;D

I will use this machine to learn and do small stuff around the house. My current budget is $750.00. When I'm ready for a bigger machine I will have a much more realistic budget, something like $5-6K.
 
Unless something is tugging at your shorts Erik, take your time while looking. There are some really great deals out there. I stumbled upon a very nice (actually as new) Mori Seiki MS 850 for a song. Belonged to a retired machinist who used it for his hobby at home. He died a few years ago, and I purchased it from his wife while up in Northern Ca. picking up another dog from our breeder. Be patient ;)
 
Erik, To bad we are so far apart, I will be selling my old Logan 10" that i got from the son of an tool and die maker. He passed in 1996 and it was sitting in his basement for his own use. Every thing came with the lathe...... jim
 
Mine came in at .001 in 36" Not too bad for what it is. I use Brunson and Wild optics for alignment. I anchored the stands, removed the soft foot, leveled the ways to about .0005 then checked squared (perpendicular attribute) the ways from the headstock to same. I used Quick shim B for the feet and would have used modified A from the ways to headstock but I don't have anything less than .001 and I can live with .001 over 36". I didn't have to set it up this tight for what I do but alignment is what I do for work and I was excited to play with my new machine.

When I initially put it on the ground there was .012 wrack in the ways (level) that reflect .005 for square. Once I leveled the machine out, the square attribute came in to the .001.

The tail stock has a bit of (level) angular misalignment in it that some comes out as I tighten the hold down. It is designed for .003 offset differential. I am able to closely repeat my set up number with a calibrated thump of my hand on the tail stock handle. I don't care to use the torque wrench till I work on something that requires it. I leared about the tail stock when I started contouring barrels. Learning curve was pretty sharp right then. ???

I have a Grizzly and it is not best iron but it works.
It pains me to have bought something other than USA but I am making chips now and it is a lot better than what I had before, nothing. My biggest complait is the crappy metal they use for the allen set screws. First thing I did once running was to replace all set screws in the steady, follower, tailstock and extra tool holders that I bought for it.

I tore the engine apart to see what it was made of. I was happy to see they used Japanese NSK p5 bearings in the headstock. I replaced them just because I had it apart and replaced all the other elcheapo's with Necchi.

Jim
 
Erik,
Just to compare notes with you about buying a small lathe to learn on.
After observing from others that the learning curve for turning is relatively short and with having a clear objective of the work I wanted to do (hobby gunsmithing) it seemed to be a waste of time and money for me to start with less than a 12 x 36 in the class of a Grizzly. Even if one has to wait and save, tooling up and learning for the 'real thing' will get you to the objective more quickly in the end. In case you don't already know, a lathe that is 36'' between centers might not have a carriage that will travel the full 36''. Make sure to check carriage travel on any model you might be looking at. FWIW
 
I don't see where a 36" lathe is needed to do a barrel, all you use is the head stock. Old South Bend 10 L isn't 36" between centers and a lot of barrels been done on them....... jim
 
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/craigsly-craigslist-search-alert/

http://www.searchtempest.com/

http://www.freetoolshopper.com/

http://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm

http://www.govliquidation.com/

Just a few places to make a search
 
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