Make a lathe height gauge with not (much) thinking and figuring.

On my South Bend 10K I took a piece of sheet metal and bent it to a 90* L. I held the short side against the top of the cross slide. I used a center in the tailstock as a scribe and slid the sheet metal part against the center to scribe the center height.

Easier and simpler is to chuck up a bar and face the end to leave a teat. The point of the teat is center height. Save the bar and use it next time you need to set a tool on center.
 
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