Vevor lathe need guidance.

[steelcat]

The tail stock and head stock on my lathe set on the ways at an angle and are not parallel to the bed.
Please see attached pictures. The lathe is performing great for my needs. The runout on the chuck is less then .0005 and the taper is .0005 over 6 inches supported and unsupported. My biggest concern is the footplate contact patch on the bed way is so small and narrow that it will wear the bed ways prematurely. What little I have used it you can see the discoloration line in the bed way. It looks like an easy fix but is it worth it?

 

[Nutfarmer]

Not an easy fix. There is a lot of work to machine and scrape the tail and headstock in. That would be almost as much work as rebuilding an old lathe.

 

[steelcat]

Humm
60 thousands shim in the headstock to level it and make or modify the foot plate to raise the flat side of the tailstock 75 thousands or am I over simplifying it? Also may have to raise the tool post a tad.

 

[Firstram]

Those surfaces are all as cast and not suitable for reference! The only thing that matters is the centerline of the rotating spindle and tailstock ram. They need to be inline and parallel to the ways! Unfortunately, the tailstock bottom casting is typical to all 7x's.

 

[steelcat]

Humm
60 thousands shim in the headstock to level it and make or modify the foot plate to raise the flat side of the tailstock 75 thousands or am I over simplifying it? Also may have to raise the tool post a tad.

Those surfaces are all as cast and not suitable for reference! The only thing that matters is the centerline of the rotating spindle and tailstock ram. They need to be inline and parallel to the ways! Unfortunately, the tailstock bottom casting is typical to all

Those surfaces are all as cast and not suitable for reference! The only thing that matters is the centerline of the rotating spindle and tailstock ram. They need to be inline and parallel to the ways! Unfortunately, the tailstock bottom casting is typical to all 7x's.

Thanks!
I think I will leave it alone its running fine.

 

[homebrewed]

Close examination of your photo titled "footplate angle" shows a rub mark on the side of the bed "vee", similar to the one on the flat side of the lathe bed. It suggests to me that your footplate has some sort of defect that is rubbing on the Vee. You can see that the footplate is offset so it's not sitting in close contact with the bed Vee, probably displaced by something that's not supposed to be there. Take a look at the bottom of the footplate. I bet you find a glob of something in its Vee, or perhaps the machining job for the Vee wasn't finished. The solution might be simpler than you think.

 

[steelcat]

Thanks!
I think I will leave it alone its running fine.

Close examination of your photo titled "footplate angle" shows a rub mark on the side of the bed "vee", similar to the one on the flat side of the lathe bed. It suggests to me that your footplate has some sort of defect that is rubbing on the Vee. You can see that the footplate is offset so it's not sitting in close contact with the bed Vee, probably displaced by something that's not supposed to be there. Take a look at the bottom of the footplate. I bet you find a glob of something in its Vee, or perhaps the machining job for the Vee wasn't finished. The solution might be simpler than you think.

Thanks for the reply.
I went out to the shop and pulled off the tailstock to take a look see at the tailstock foot plate groove. It looked OK to me but half of the time Iam not sure what I am looking at.

 

[Nesse1]

Here is another thread from earlier in the year on this same subject...

Vevor 8x14 tailstock headache

Hello, I just bought a Vevor 8x14 lathe. I am expecting it to need a lot of tuning. I didn't quite expect this though: they didn't mill the tailstock groove deeply enough to allow it to sit squarely on the ways. I don't know squat about machining or lathes, so if I am misunderstanding things I'd...

www.hobby-machinist.com

 

[homebrewed]

Thanks for the reply.
I went out to the shop and pulled off the tailstock to take a look see at the tailstock foot plate groove. It looked OK to me but half of the time Iam not sure what I am looking at.

The groove does indeed look OK. But something is preventing the foot plate from settling more completely into the bed Vee. Now I'm wondering about that hold-down plate, the part with the big screw and nut on it. It is not square, but rectangular. If it's rotated so the wide dimension is perpendicular to the long axis of the bed it might fetch up against something on the bottom of the bed and push the foot plate toward the back of the bed.

Based on the thread mentioned by @Nesse1 you just may be seeing the "normal" manufacturing tolerances used to make this class of lathe...

 

[steelcat]

The groove does indeed look OK. But something is preventing the foot plate from settling more completely into the bed Vee. Now I'm wondering about that hold-down plate, the part with the big screw and nut on it. It is not square, but rectangular. If it's rotated so the wide dimension is perpendicular to the long axis of the bed it might fetch up against something on the bottom of the bed and push the foot plate toward the back of the bed.

Based on the thread mentioned by @Nesse1 you just may be seeing the "normal" manufacturing tolerances used to make this class of lathe...

The hold down plate will only fit one way.
I am convinced its just the nature of the beast.
It's cutting great for my needs and the way I look at it is, if it ain't broke dont fix it!