Thats why i sujested turn between centes as a test as i dident know if OP had a test bar for mesuring it.Now that you mentioned a crash I believe the headstock has shifted. The test I mentioned earlier will prove it.
Pierre
a part between centers "should" turn with no taper even if your head is out of line.
That is Not correct.....If either the headstock or tail stock or both are "Out of Line" with each other it will turn a taper, Unless (and this is a HUGE "UNLESS") Both the head AND tail stock somehow happen to be "off center" the exact same distance making the barstock parallel to the carriage travel which is Not Likely to happen.
I don't see how you would have the tail stock not lined up with the head stock if you set it up to match your head end? You would generally dial in the tail stock to align to the head I would have thought.
Yes I agree and would think unless the person was new to the trade and uninformed that they would dial in their machines if possible. However, from what ive learned thus far, depending on how one goes about this Alignment process the tail stock may or may not align perfectly with the headstock over then entire bed length based on the conditions of the mating surfaces and how true they are on each machine. Normally most of the wear is close to the headstock so if you placed the tailstock in the well worn area of the bed to dial it in with the headstock then there would be a very very good possibility for it to be off in areas that are not as worn or vise-versa.
Now i may be WAY OFF here but right or wrong this is what ive learned on the subject but that don't mean I'm not willing to learn something new about it so please correct me if I'm wrong.