Similar story for me. 12 months and only just starting to see real progress on my project. Haven’t really messed with the lathe setup though… maybe it will be a defining factor.

When buying a lathe especially a used one it's best to go for those which come with the basic attachments – 3, 4 jaw, face plate and the steadies preferably both but especially the fixed one. A good solid maybe rather old drill chuck is a good idea too.

I'm going to need to produce some very round precise work eventually for a Pultra spindle. One thought has been mostly doing it between centres so I looked around for signs of a between centre test bar. All seem to have morse tapers on the end – not what I want. I came across suggestions for making one. With more detail it sounds feasible. Might be of use to people.

Hold one end of a piece of sliver steel as closely on centre as possible. I'm thinking well sub 1/10 thou, no movement at all on the dti. Same the other end in the fixed steady. Face off, recess and centre drill not using too small a size as it needs to produce a round hole even if the tail stock is marginally off centre – a very small one might bend. I'd also turn the end down for a short distance and chamfer the ends, Reverse and do the same to the other end. The 60 degree part of the centre hole shouldn't be very wide – say 1.5mm or less.

This should finish up with a shorter version of what is used to set up lathes – one problem is that I understand that they may use DTI's with sort of bar like attachment on the end so that the bed error can be dealt with separately. Errors in the bar should be well short of the usual +/-0.0005in error typically quoted for between centre work where large numbers of parts are being made.

One other thing I have found concerning round parallel parts just held in the chuck is the need to make repeated cuts at the same setting due to the work bending and slight play in the bearings. Too much play in the bearings can even cause problems when this done. The drive belt might be positioning the spindle.

There are other fixes to achieve perfection that take the lathe completely out of it. The travelling steady or the type of cutter boxes used on capstan lathes. This is using the same principle as centreless grinding uses – circles and 3 points. Things have to come out round. I expect a comment on that but don't believe the 50p piece argument as massive numbers of things are made this way and come out round to very fine limits.

John

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I can well understand since I have a few bucket loads of tools, an extra Milling machine, Blah, Blah, Blah. Who was that said calculate how long it should take and multiply by two? Make that ten. Some people loose themselves just tuning their machines and never make sod all. Others make models but most (beginners) just make a mess. I know I do.

I'm much the same on my Boxford but not so long only around 15 years, so long I am not sure. I don't usually machine for hours on end, just bits and pieces. It took several months to get the slides right, several adjustments. They are still a little tight really but better than having them loose. Bearings adjusted I don't know how many times for the 1st year as they settled down.

Then I decided to strip the entire lathe head. I soon found out why the bearings were tricky. I heard a rumour that Boxford have been known to make the fit on the spindle too tight – very true. I cleaned up all of the old grease and took a few um off the end of the spindle with a lap on a Peatol lathe. That fixed the fit. I then had the bright idea of greasing the spindle to ease fitting – a really bad idea as the grease messes up adjustment and wont go away. I also decided to grease the outer side of the spindle where the back gear runs. Seemed like a good idea as ME10's are a pain to pump oil in to lubricated it. Trouble is that the heat conduction from the spindle is now so good that the bearings no longer warm up and tighten a touch – not sure if that is good or bad yet but I wouldn't mind betting I will have to strip it again, clean up and use oil as before.

One irritation. The lathe has a slight wobble on a large pulley on the counter shaft. Vibrations from this shows a slight few if that um pattern in the finish when I try hard. First attempt to fix – replaced the bearings – no change so then checked that the pulley is square to the shaft – it seems to be. So it seems the casting carrying the bearings is warped. I then tried a lighter pulley – seemed to improve things but while using the lathe the lot came loose – not sure why. I'm currently tidying up to have another go at re assembling that set up. Next step will have to be a reduced diameter on one end of the counter shaft to carry some sort of self aligning bearing set up that I can move about. I reckon the error is ove 1/16in.

Taper last time I measured it with 6in of 1in ms bar sticking out of the chuck without a centre was under 0.001in. Might be less if I had run the tool along several more times. I don't stress the bed to correct error as the stand it's on isn't rigid enough – an old kitchen cupboard and a window sill. I did the same as I have done with other lathes like this one. Bolt through the tray fixed rigidly with a nut. Another nut to support the lathe each leg carefully adjusted to support it evenly. Then a nut on top to hold it down but I leave these finger tight..

john

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