Central Machinery (AKA HF junk) sucks sticky boogers

Guess who just trashed 5 out of 5 pocket watches because the tail stock on his el-cheapo Central Machinery lathe can not be set true to the headstock. That caused the 1 3/8 Forstner drill to bore well over-sized.

I can redeem the watches by adding thick CA to the ID of the recess for the watch ... but being able to repair something is not on a par with being able to do it correctly to start with.

Just for kicks I turned a cone in the headstock and ran a center up to it. Well, guess what? The tailstock is about .030 (eyeballed) BELOW center. I need to lower the headstock.

If I had a Bridgeport and a surface grinder handy I could simply machine the headstock down. But I don't, so I can't.

There are no gibs on the tailstock so I am looking for suggestions as to how I might align the headstock & tailstock (preferably without having to retrue it after every movement.)

Not only are 5 watches messed up, but there is no way I can drill pen blanks on the lathe. (My drill press is just too frustrating for words.)

Bill

Reply to
Anonymous
Loading thread data ...

Is it a metal or woodturning lathe? Either way, you could find out the exact amount of difference and have a couple shims precision machined or ground. for a metalturning lathe, hopefully the tailstock has adjustable offset, for taper turning, with a seperate base holding the tailstock body. Slip the shims between the base and body on each side of the slideways. Superglue in place to keep them from working out.

For a wood lathe, use identical shims superglued to the base of the tailstock. Ditto for a metal lathe without tailstock offset adjustment.

Ken Grunke

formatting link

Reply to
Ken G.

---------------------

I hate being stupid. I really do.

Apparently the rear of the tailstock was riding on "something" ... perhaps a bit of sawdust ... who knows? That would be enough to tip it up in the rear, down in the front. At any rate, I cleaned the bottom of the tailstock and checked the alignment with an indicator. It's now about .0025 away from dead true in both the X and the Y axes.

And, so far as being unable to drill a 7mm drill through a hunk of wood, I guess it would help a little if I cut the durned thing to length before drilling, not after. (After drilling a 5 1/2" long 7mm hole through American Blackwood, there's little reason to bother cutting it.)

The directions in the PSI catalog make no mention (that I can find) about cutting the blank ... ever. Just that you should buy another thingie from them to square up the ends. However, on my fifth or sixth reading of them, I found the directions to cut the blanks about 1/4" longer than the tubes and that's when it dawned on me that I'd have a lot more success if I cut them first.

Dohhhhhhhhh!

Bill

Reply to
Anonymous

However, on my fifth or sixth reading of them,

Sorry to follow up on myself, but upon reading this again I realized that I was unintentionally misleading. The actual source of the missing information was the Woodcraft instructions given me when I bought a mandrel, not the PSI instructions.

Bill

Reply to
Anonymous

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.