Bent Spindle?

Hi , a picture would be nice . Is your machine Timken bearing headstock or Babbitt ?
Mark .
Babbitt bearings.

Just a follow up. In addition to the runout which is extremely repeatable in both clocking and amount between both chucks that I have, I was able to lift up on the outboard end of a piece of shafting and feel it move. Took out the 0.012 shim that was in on the inboard side and ended up at 0.008 before the uplift went away. 0.007 and it was too tight to turn. Even with that corrected the runout is still there. The strange thing is that it's not just always down. If I rotate it 180 degrees the runout is up.
 
He reported the model number as V54, not TV54. So assuming that the headstock is the original one, it has babbit spindle bearings.

But you need to do a little more testing. Check the runout of the 3MT taper in the end 0f the spindle.
 
The 0.0015 runout at the face of the shoulder is too much, 0.0005 would be more like it.
But with babbit it's hard to say that's not just axial (left to right) spindle movement as it turns in the bearings
 
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A little more testing, inside of the spindle bore with the indicator at 6 o'clock <0.0005 runout. Moved indicator to 3 o'clock and was surprised to see the indicator jumping all over the place. Finally noticed that when I pushed on the top pulley to turn everything over the indicator moved about 5 thousandths every time I pushed. Always goes back to the same place but every push it moves. Not sure what this is telling me but seemed strange.
 
That sounds like you have a Babbitt bearing problem. Oval shaped would be my guess. If you have room to take some shims out. Not sure if you could make a lapping rod and try and recondition the bearings so they get more round.
This is a way better problem than a bent spindle.


Cutting oil is my blood.
 
That sounds like you have a Babbitt bearing problem. Oval shaped would be my guess. If you have room to take some shims out. Not sure if you could make a lapping rod and try and recondition the bearings so they get more round.
This is a way better problem than a bent spindle.


Cutting oil is my blood.
I've got the shims down to where there is no noticeable uplift or side movement in the spindle. Difference of 1 thousandth between moving and unable to turn. Unfortunately that had zero impact on the initial runout problem.
 
So it is lateral movement and not vertical movement? With all slop taken out.

Can you get some pictures of the bearing surface and spindle. Maybe we can see if there is excessive wear.


Cutting oil is my blood.
 
I am afraid that I have to recommend that you replace the babbit bearing headstock and spindle with a Timken bearing version.
 
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