- Joined
- Jan 22, 2012
- Messages
- 655
Update on where I am at this point. I will list the steps I took before making a cut on the faceplate.
1. Evened out the loading on each foot and then leveled the lathe side to side and front to back trying to keep the load on each foot equal.
2. Loosened the 6 mount bolts that attach the lathe to the stand. Ran the lathe for 1 min to allow it to settle on the stand and then tightened all 6 bolts.
3. Rechecked the level, didn't seem to change. The lathe running with only the chuck, no test bar, had a noticeable shake/shimmy (350 rpm). I tweaked the loading on the front tailstock foot (increased) which got most of the shimmy out. This did affect the level a bit front to back but the feet require equal loading to get rid of the shimmy so I left it where it was at.
4. Removed the chuck, the lathe now ran very smooth. No shake/shimmy.
5. Mounted the faceplate and setup for a skim cut. I locked both the carriage and compound and made a skim cut. This cleaned up the complete faceplate surface.
6. With a dial indicator on the carriage I measured the faceplate runout. I had to measure one side at a time, resetting the indicator due to lack of enough travel. I redid this measurement several times and got the same results each time.
I measured .0015" on the half of the faceplate closest to me starting at the outside edge and moving toward the hole in the center of the faceplate. When I did the same measurement on the other half of the faceplate I saw a total of .003". This was over a 3" distance on each side. The surface of the faceplate is now slightly concave which is the opposite of what I expected based on the results of the test bar. The test bar was smaller in diameter at the end closer to the headstock which had me thinking the spindle centerline was pointing slightly toward the rear of the lathe but that would have resulted in a convex surface so not sure what's going on at this point.
Questions:
1. Why would I get different runout measurements on the 2 half's of the faceplate when I sweep across the face? It didn't make sense to me, that's why I re-did it several times.
2. Should I tweak the alignment of the headstock? It seems to be out compared to the cross slide but how much? Using the 2 indicator method described by joshua should I set the one indicator to .0015" and tweak until both read the same value?
3. Why would the test bar results indicate the headstock angled toward the rear of the lathe while the faceplate results indicate it's angled toward the front of the machine. Or am I just looking at this all wrong.
1. Evened out the loading on each foot and then leveled the lathe side to side and front to back trying to keep the load on each foot equal.
2. Loosened the 6 mount bolts that attach the lathe to the stand. Ran the lathe for 1 min to allow it to settle on the stand and then tightened all 6 bolts.
3. Rechecked the level, didn't seem to change. The lathe running with only the chuck, no test bar, had a noticeable shake/shimmy (350 rpm). I tweaked the loading on the front tailstock foot (increased) which got most of the shimmy out. This did affect the level a bit front to back but the feet require equal loading to get rid of the shimmy so I left it where it was at.
4. Removed the chuck, the lathe now ran very smooth. No shake/shimmy.
5. Mounted the faceplate and setup for a skim cut. I locked both the carriage and compound and made a skim cut. This cleaned up the complete faceplate surface.
6. With a dial indicator on the carriage I measured the faceplate runout. I had to measure one side at a time, resetting the indicator due to lack of enough travel. I redid this measurement several times and got the same results each time.
I measured .0015" on the half of the faceplate closest to me starting at the outside edge and moving toward the hole in the center of the faceplate. When I did the same measurement on the other half of the faceplate I saw a total of .003". This was over a 3" distance on each side. The surface of the faceplate is now slightly concave which is the opposite of what I expected based on the results of the test bar. The test bar was smaller in diameter at the end closer to the headstock which had me thinking the spindle centerline was pointing slightly toward the rear of the lathe but that would have resulted in a convex surface so not sure what's going on at this point.
Questions:
1. Why would I get different runout measurements on the 2 half's of the faceplate when I sweep across the face? It didn't make sense to me, that's why I re-did it several times.
2. Should I tweak the alignment of the headstock? It seems to be out compared to the cross slide but how much? Using the 2 indicator method described by joshua should I set the one indicator to .0015" and tweak until both read the same value?
3. Why would the test bar results indicate the headstock angled toward the rear of the lathe while the faceplate results indicate it's angled toward the front of the machine. Or am I just looking at this all wrong.