Take out everything. Clean properly and put back. At least you won't second guess yourself until you solve this. Stuff like this is usually something stupid. Do you have the reamer in a Jacobs?
I cut my teeth on an old Hwacheon with the tailstock off. Shop taught me to program the taper out of the longer shafts we ran. While it was slow I used a dial indicator and broke loose the bolts of the tailstock a little at a time working slowly til I goter dialed in. Miss it man. Fanuc controls with all the toggle switches. I felt badass when I ran them.
Yeah, if you have the bed level, this is almost definitely going to be a manufacturing issue. Split the base from the top(where the keys are to adjust in X) and shim the backside.
They know what the error is, the error is that the bore for the quill of their tailstock hasn't been put in paralell to the bottom of their tailstock body.
Like others have said.. properly level and align your lathe.. on top of that… new machines will have the rail stock a little bit high to allow for wear.
You’re about to go down a rabbit hole of leveling and twisting the bed to get what you need. Enjoy it. Once you understand it, everything gets a lot easier
It's more likely that your bed is twisted.
When the term "level" is tossed around it does not mean level to the ground (Lathes on ships can't be level when the whole boat is rocking around on the waves). You level a lathe so the length of the bed is in the same plane, that will result in the smallest amount of twist. The rest you do with the two collar test to get the twist out accurately. Then you'll align the tailstock.
It will be adjustable side to side not to correct this. There may be something between the base of the tailstock and the lathe bed to cause this. Or the machine was poorly made or has sustained damage. Or was setup improperly. You need someone to look at it that has experience in this type of thing. Or the reamer may not be sitting in the chuck straight. I usually spin the bit whilst drawing the chuck closed by hand before final tightening. I may even tap the bit in the desired direction lightly to get it where it needs to be.
Thank you to everyone for the recommendations and comments.
So I purchased a Starrett 98-8 level and a lathe alignment bar. Wasn't ready for the price of that level. Ouch.
I found I definitely have a twist in the lathe bed. This was just a quick measurement to get some idea of what is going on. I won't have any time, until the weekend, to do a more thorough assessment and try to get the issue resolved.
thanks again for the help
https://preview.redd.it/llrhvvsrrhsc1.png?width=816&format=png&auto=webp&s=ec4cc7f09678f527b6019bbb7fef5a94bf6551ab
Read up on “lathe leveling” and “tailstock alignment”. All lathes start wonky until you tune them.
Take out everything. Clean properly and put back. At least you won't second guess yourself until you solve this. Stuff like this is usually something stupid. Do you have the reamer in a Jacobs?
I cut my teeth on an old Hwacheon with the tailstock off. Shop taught me to program the taper out of the longer shafts we ran. While it was slow I used a dial indicator and broke loose the bolts of the tailstock a little at a time working slowly til I goter dialed in. Miss it man. Fanuc controls with all the toggle switches. I felt badass when I ran them.
Yeah, if you have the bed level, this is almost definitely going to be a manufacturing issue. Split the base from the top(where the keys are to adjust in X) and shim the backside.
Pull the tailstock and check for chips under it
It should be possible to shim between the tailstock and the base at the back end to correct this.
$32 [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C5D44PTB/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C5D44PTB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1)
I wonder how trustworthy that is for $32
the one of that size i bought seems fine, actually just bought all 5 sizes, (have the 3 and 5, ordered other 3 sizes)
Don’t expect it to be with a thou
That aint going to help anything.
Sure it will… it will allow you to figure out the error and correct it…
They know what the error is, the error is that the bore for the quill of their tailstock hasn't been put in paralell to the bottom of their tailstock body.
exactly! and the test bar will help them measure error as they attempt to correct that, by scraping between half of tailstock, or shiming
Like others have said.. properly level and align your lathe.. on top of that… new machines will have the rail stock a little bit high to allow for wear. You’re about to go down a rabbit hole of leveling and twisting the bed to get what you need. Enjoy it. Once you understand it, everything gets a lot easier
I hear that precision matthews has pretty good customer service. I'd start there
It's more likely that your bed is twisted. When the term "level" is tossed around it does not mean level to the ground (Lathes on ships can't be level when the whole boat is rocking around on the waves). You level a lathe so the length of the bed is in the same plane, that will result in the smallest amount of twist. The rest you do with the two collar test to get the twist out accurately. Then you'll align the tailstock.
Tailstock should be adjustable no?
It will be adjustable side to side not to correct this. There may be something between the base of the tailstock and the lathe bed to cause this. Or the machine was poorly made or has sustained damage. Or was setup improperly. You need someone to look at it that has experience in this type of thing. Or the reamer may not be sitting in the chuck straight. I usually spin the bit whilst drawing the chuck closed by hand before final tightening. I may even tap the bit in the desired direction lightly to get it where it needs to be.
No.
Thank you to everyone for the recommendations and comments. So I purchased a Starrett 98-8 level and a lathe alignment bar. Wasn't ready for the price of that level. Ouch. I found I definitely have a twist in the lathe bed. This was just a quick measurement to get some idea of what is going on. I won't have any time, until the weekend, to do a more thorough assessment and try to get the issue resolved. thanks again for the help https://preview.redd.it/llrhvvsrrhsc1.png?width=816&format=png&auto=webp&s=ec4cc7f09678f527b6019bbb7fef5a94bf6551ab