How much taper's in your Sherline lathe?

[Jmp50]

I picked up barely used 90's 4100 cheap off craigslist a few years ago. Use it mostly for brass prep, small parts ect.
Curious how much taper other Sherline lathe owners have when zeroed after tweeking the headstock ect.
My 4100 will hold .001"(1/2 steel) over 3" useing a 3 jaw, OXA, 1/4" HSS, live center and the old style tailstock. Anything to be gained upgrading to the new tailstock?
I realize neither are adjustable,
I use a brass plug when useing 1/4" bits in the OXA. Easily centers any profile cutter.

 

[mikey]

Curious how much taper other Sherline lathe owners have when zeroed after tweeking the headstock ect.
My 4100 will hold .001"(1/2 steel) over 3" useing a 3 jaw, OXA, 1/4" HSS, live center and the old style tailstock.

I adjust the headstock to achieve ZERO taper over 4" of a steel rod after doing tapers. It may take a few test cuts but dialing the headstock in is an important task. You need a good, sharp HSS tool to do this while taking 0.001" depth of cut down the whole 4" of rod; there should be no difference in OD when you're done.

Anything to be gained upgrading to the new tailstock?

The newer tailstock locks more solidly. Neither the old or newer one is anywhere near accurate. If you need accurate tailstock alignment, buy an adjustable live center or make a better live center.

 

[Jmp50]

That's impressive...just useing an accurate dead center in tailstock?

 

[mikey]

That's impressive...just useing an accurate dead center in tailstock?

Sorry, I don't understand your question. The tailstock has nothing to do with headstock alignment.

 

[Jmp50]

Fixed problem and made alot of steel wool in the process....lol
Alignment key was the problem, threw it away. Wasted still more time tweeking /cutting, tweeking ect with it out. Light bulb finally turned on to get the south bend involved. Turned one end and center drilled the piece of 1/2" stock. Slightly losened the headstock to allow the modded bar to self align with the tailstock and tightened it down. My next cut was right on the money .0003" over 4"....too easy.

 

[Jmp50]

Thanks for the explanation Mikey, I didn't realize headstock alignment was done with only the chuck. I was useing both, to try to achieve the least amount of taper possible. I guess you could say I aligned the headstock to the tailstock in this case.....lol. It works, that's all that matters. (.0003) over 4" Your zero taper comment pushed me to try to get everything I could out of this little lathe. I didn't think it was possible.

 

[jwet]

I know this is a somewhat old thread but might still be useful. I worked with Sherline and still do (I developed their DRO and continue to sell and support it). I spent some time in all corners of their shop during development. In the final assembly area, a very experienced guy used to do the final alignment and checkout on the lathes. One of his main tools was a rawhide mallet. This sounds barbaric but this guy likely had a feel for it after doing it for 30 years. He would get the headstock dialed in and then slide around the tail stock with dead centers and an indicator and give the tail stock a good wallop with that little hammer for final alignment. I don't know if they still do this but it was effective. I've never done this but aluminum can take a bit of this and doesn't spring back much. The dirty truth hurts.

 

[mikey]

A rawhide mallet might get you within "specs" but it doesn't solve a design flaw. As soon as you move the tailstock to a position other than the one in which the adjustment was made the alignment will be different.

That non-adjustable tailstock is, in my opinion, the biggest design flaw of the Sherline lathe, a lathe that is otherwises a truly excellent machine. It wouldn't be hard for Sherline to fix but for some reason they haven't seen it as a priority ... stupid.

 

[jwet]

They have fixed it! Long ago, I was just relating an old story or if someone has one of these old lathes. The real solution would be to buy a new tailstock if this is really bothersome. I've never found it to be much of an issue. What I was talking about is the one piece extruded tailstock that replaced the original brass tailstock that they had for the first ten years. As of about about 2003, the tailstock is two pieces with little allen adjustments that can be shimmed etc to give you about a tenth anywhere you want it. They also have a number of centering jigs for the tailstock.

 

[mikey]

I own the current version and the is NO way to adjust horizontal or vertical alignment. You can adjust the gib fit only.