I have noticedon several lathes that I use that the spur center appears to have rings cut around the taper and that the inside of the spindle also has rough ridges instead of a smooth surface. What is the cause, what is the fix and how do I prevent if happening? I fear a frozen spur center may be in my future. My thinking is that both spur and inside of the spindle should be matching smooth surfaces. I would welcome your experience and advice. GCS
Cause is the spur center turning inside the spindle and a little bit is usually not a problem. Prevention is making sure the center and the spindle interior are clean before installing the center and making sure center is firmly seated in the spindle before starting to turn. Some may disagree but the ridges are not likely to cause a badly frozen spur center since they actually keep much of the spindle's and center's mating surfaces apart. The inside of the spindle can be cleaned up with the appropriate Morse Taper reamer but I don't know how well this works on lathes with hardened spindles. If you are having trouble keeping the center from slipping then you should consider getting the spindle cleaned-up and replacing damaged centers. Putting a center with ridges into a good condition spindle will cause the driving forces to be on the ridges (small surface area) which will make slippage more likely causing spindle scoring. When removing a center a good sharp rap is far superior to beating on the removal bar with a bunch of loving, gentle taps.
Billh
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