Lathe always turns a taper with a live center

[taiwanluthiers]

Well, I'm trying to see about using an angle grinder to just grind the ways close to the head to match the wear pattern in the middle.

I think it's probably easier to make a block that holds a center drill than it is for me to use a chuck.

 

[great white]

Well, I'm trying to see about using an angle grinder to just grind the ways close to the head to match the wear pattern in the middle.

I think it's probably easier to make a block that holds a center drill than it is for me to use a chuck.

I really recommend against taking an angle grinder to the bed ways. Thats a sure way to turn the entire way into unusable junk…

 

[taiwanluthiers]

Well the bed way is already worn, at least the carriage part is still in decent condition.

Really what needs to happen is the entire bed would need to be reground, then hand scrapped. This lathe isn't worth that kind of treatment (I might as well buy a new lathe). Since the bed way is the lathe, I'm not going to find some bed way in some auction site.

So as it stands now, I just need a way to center drill on the carriage, and adjust the tail stock for every job as needed. Even the tail stock itself can't be counted upon to drill accurate holes, that is why we have boring bars and reamers.

Before you think angle grinder will junk ways... people have built a lathe using angle grinders to grind the ways. You just need the right jig for the job.

 

[great white]

Then I would suggest using the worn part of the ways as a simple storage position for the tail stock and work further up the way where they wear isn’t as bad. You’ll loose some length capacity, but at least it should cut true…

 

[homebrewed]

If you have a boring bar holder for your 4-way you may already be most of the way toward a toolpost-mounted drill chuck. I have one for 1/2" boring bars, so I bought a drill chuck that mounts with a 1/2" stud on the back. The stud in turn is held in the boring bar holder.

There also are Jacobs to 1/2" shaft adapters. Using something like that would greatly increase your choice(s) of drill chucks you can use. Maybe you dont even need to buy another chuck, just the right adapter.

I made my toolpost-mounted chuck setup because of my poorly aligned tailstock. It takes a little care to align but does have some advantages over the tailstock. For one thing, it has much longer Z-axis range than the tailstock. If I'm enlarging a hole by step drilling that's a big deal because the length of the drill doesn't matter any more -- short drills to long drills, just back the carriage out and chiuck them up. If using the tailstock I usually have to periodically loosen it up & move it back as I step up in drill size. Peck drilling is much faster, too. And if you need to drill to a precise depth you can do that by using the compound to advance the drill. So in many ways its not an alternative to the TS but a different kind of accessory altogether. Plus you can't use it if you _do_ need to support something with a center while youre machining it.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

If you're going to grind the tailstock way down to even out the wear, fashion some kind of holder for the angle grinder so you can mount it to the carriage. That should help keep the tailstock way height constant relative to the carriage ways. And do your best to protect your lathe from the grinding grit.

 

[taiwanluthiers]

If you're going to grind the tailstock way down to even out the wear, fashion some kind of holder for the angle grinder so you can mount it to the carriage. That should help keep the tailstock way height constant relative to the carriage ways. And do your best to protect your lathe from the grinding grit.

I'm trying to figure out a way to do this. Maybe I can use a woodworking router with a grinding stone in it that is somehow mounted to the cross slides. This way I can control the depth and grind a tiny bit of metal away at a time until I take the wear off. Most the wear is right in the middle of the machine. I can't think of a better way to do this, and I am not sure you can scrape this way because it's hard.