Yet another leveling question

[drs23]

I have a G4003G set up and running, has been for a couple of months. I had a machinist friend come by to level it for me but was not able to observe what he did because I delivering a bike to a customer. My reasoning for questioning how level it is he was only out there a couple of minutes when he put his level & blocks back in his truck. He told me "You're only out a couple of thou. Let it eat". I thanked him and he left. The deal is I can't seem to achieve repeatability. It just so happened that a machinist who works at one of the local refineries stopped by one evening last week to talk about some motorcycle repair and asked how my new machine was doing and asked if I'd leveled it yet so I told him what I've said here. He brought me a 12" machinist level to check it with and according to it my lathe is not level in any plane.

Here's where I'm perplexed due to my lack of knowledge. Tom, my machinist friend tells me and I read that one needs blocks to level a lathe accurately, that you can't just set the level on the ways and setting it across the Vways is a no-no but that's exactly what is shown there in the photo and that's what I did since I don't have the blocks.

What's a mother to do? Do I HAVE to have the blocks or can you indeed just set the level on the ways?

 

[Ray C]

Hi...

Level and aligned have nothing to do with eachother... Aligned is what you want... this is a process of shimming the bench legs or lathe footing bolts until the machine cuts properly. There are two methods that augment eachother. One is calle Two-Collar and another is called Rollies method...


Please search this site for those articles. Also, you can look for a thread called "YALB: Yet another lathe bench" and it will show from the ground-up the theory of what's going on as well as pointers to the official links that cover alignment.


Ray

PS: My lathe is only leveled to make the drip pan drain where I want it. The rest is very precisely performed alignment...

 

[Richard King]

Here you go.

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/showthread.php/12839-Enco-13x40-Spindle-bent-or-headstock-mis-aligned

scroll down to the bottom of the link. Also call me and I'll help you figure it out if you need advise on leveling / aligning your lathe. Rich 651 338 8141

 

[drs23]

Hi...

Level and aligned have nothing to do with eachother... Aligned is what you want... this is a process of shimming the bench legs or lathe footing bolts until the machine cuts properly. There are two methods that augment eachother. One is calle Two-Collar and another is called Rollies method...

Please search this site for those articles. Also, you can look for a thread called "YALB: Yet another lathe bench" and it will show from the ground-up the theory of what's going on as well as pointers to the official links that cover alignment.

PS: My lathe is only leveled to make the drip pan drain where I want it. The rest is very precisely performed alignment...

Ray

Thanks for the answers. Ray I've followed your thread in it's entirety and should have probably said align instead of level. I'm attempting to set up the two collar check method now but am unsure as to how to mount my faceplate. That's how green I am. I got as far as center drilling the 1" round stock before it turned into a train station around here again. I'll be able to get back to it after 5 CDT.

Here you go.

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/showthread.php/12839-Enco-13x40-Spindle-bent-or-headstock-mis-aligned

scroll down to the bottom of the link. Also call me and I'll help you figure it out if you need advise on leveling / aligning your lathe. Rich 651 338 8141

Rich,

Thanks so much for the kind offer. As luck would have it my machinist Buddy, Tom, just left (I started this reply several hours ago and business got in the way) and read the level with me and said "Damn, that's way out!" Then he said "That's a real 'machine level', I used a 'machinist's level'." I didn't know there was a difference. I will say his was 6" long and this one is a Starrett 12".

Will get a chance to get back out there in a while. Will keep all posted.

Again, thanks so much,

Dale

 

[Richard King]

Dale set the 12" level on top of the cross-slide or compound and either level the machine front to back or slide a feeling gage under one end of the level to make the bubble level with the earth...remember where the bubble is and crank the saddle to the right and check the tail-stock end and adjust the feet. This will take a few tries as the bed twists a little on the head stock end when you twist the tail-stock end. Then do the 2 collar method. Rich

 

[drs23]

Dale set the 12" level on top of the cross-slide or compound and either level the machine front to back or slide a feeling gage under one end of the level to make the bubble level with the earth...remember where the bubble is and crank the saddle to the right and check the tail-stock end and adjust the feet. This will take a few tries as the bed twists a little on the head stock end when you twist the tail-stock end. Then do the 2 collar method. Rich

Rich,

Thanks again for the help. We finally got it done. I could not believe how badly it was out. When we finished the bubble was EXACTLY on the lines on the HS & TS ends (across the ways). It's about 1/8 of a bubble off (low) on the TS end but I can live with that.

I've got my test bar center drilled and am waiting on my buddy to bring me some round 1 1/2" or 2" aluminum stock to make the rings from. All I have right now is 4" and I've got designs for it later.

Thanks again much,

Dale