Leveling and aligning a new 1440 - New guy dumb questions.

[LVLAaron]

Well, I assume by the lathe you have you are going to chamber with the barrel in the headstock(ie spiders and a ground bore rod) If so, with good chambering reamers and a floating holder what you are seeing is immaterial

Exactly

 

[Dlloyd]

After setting up my 1440 (https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/pm1440gt-is-in-the-shop.97814/page-8) I'm now working on leveling and aligning.

* Tailstock alignment was fairly easy.
* Spindle runout was barely measurable with a 10ths indicator. Maybe just under half a tenth. Maybe less.

To level the bed I used this level (https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/69017267?rItem=69017267) and just placed it on top of the V ways on both ends and worked the leveling feet until I got it dead nuts on both ends. Let it sit for a while, got it dead nuts again.


I put a 12" 1.75 round bar in the 4 jaw and turned 10 inches (2 inches in chuck) - Taper as measured with my Mitutoyo QuantuMike from one end of the cut to the other is .0008 (small end was at the chuck)

Should I be happy with 8 tenths over 10 inches? Will I end up chasing my tail in circles if I try and make it better?

Sounds pretty good to me.
BTW, I am curious how long you had to wait to get your lathe? I ordered my 1440GT last October and they gave me a mid February date. They now saying mid March to April. So originally 4 months now 5 to 6 months.
I just want to know how long other folks are waiting.
thanks, David

 

[LVLAaron]

Sounds pretty good to me.
BTW, I am curious how long you had to wait to get your lathe? I ordered my 1440GT last October and they gave me a mid February date. They now saying mid March to April. So originally 4 months now 5 to 6 months.
I just want to know how long other folks are waiting.
thanks, David

9 months. I ordered in March 2021. To be fair, it was in several shipping log jams that caused most of the delay

 

[Dlloyd]

9 months. I ordered in March 2021. To be fair, it was in several shipping log jams that caused most of the delay

Oh my! I hope mine is not that long but I bet it will be. I really didn’t want to wait but I believe it is the better choice for lathes in this size and price range.

 

[silence dogood]

Think of it this way. A machinist square to be called a machinist square must be accurate within .0002" per inch. You are way within that.

 

[jbolt]

A couple of thoughts:

At 10" stick-out of a 1.75" bar you are near 6x the diameter. A good rule of thumb is 3 diameters max before supporting the end with a center. I would expect some deflection with that much unsupported.

Whenever I do alignment adjustments or high precision work it is always with the machine warmed up. 20-30 min at a medium rpm. A cold spindle will behave different than when warm.

The alignment can creep over time so it is always good practice to verify before doing high precision work.

 

[mikey]

I put a 12" 1.75 round bar in the 4 jaw and turned 10 inches (2 inches in chuck) - Taper as measured with my Mitutoyo QuantuMike from one end of the cut to the other is .0008 (small end was at the chuck)

Should I be happy with 8 tenths over 10 inches? Will I end up chasing my tail in circles if I try and make it better?

What you are telling us here is that your headstock is skewed by 0.0008" over 10". Accordingly, any leveling adjustments or tailstock alignment maneuvers will also be off.

Since the small end is at the chuck, the headstock needs to be tweaked in a CCW direction.

Is it necessary? Up to you but if you're going to be working with precision assemblies then it might be worth it.

 

[jbolt]

What you are telling us here is that your headstock is skewed by 0.0008" over 10". Accordingly, any leveling adjustments or tailstock alignment maneuvers will also be off.

Since the small end is at the chuck, the headstock needs to be tweaked in a CCW direction.

Is it necessary? Up to you but if you're going to be working with precision assemblies then it might be worth it.

This small amount of taper can be adjusted out with the tail end stand feet screws.

 

[mikey]

Sure but that doesn't address the problem.

 

[Dlloyd]

Sounds pretty good to me.
BTW, I am curious how long you had to wait to get your lathe? I ordered my 1440GT last October and they gave me a mid February date. They now saying mid March to April. So originally 4 months now 5 to 6 months.
I just want to know how long other folks are waiting.
thanks, David

I just found out that my lathe has been pushed to June or July. I had a feeling from the beginning it was going to be 9 or 10 months. Everyone I have talked to has said at least 9 months.
I just hope it not longer than that.