TonyQ
Apprentice Member
I recently had to buy a new lathe, but that's another story. I bought the current model Axminster workshop model AW305WL which is exactly the same as my old one. I had turned pens happily on the old one, using the Axminster compression mandrel. However, on the new one it just didn't feel right. I put a 4-prong centre and live centre into the head and tailstock and they lined up; I checked the mandrel bar wasn't bent by rolling it on the bench which is a very sensitive test. It all seemed correct, but it still didn't feel right.
Yesterday, took a closer look. The end of the mandrel rod as a couple of millimetres off from the centre of the mandrel live centre. When I turned the lathe by hand, the offset didn't move, proving that it wasn't the bar that was bent. I cleaned all the Morse Tapers, but it made no difference.
Going back to the "kiss test" again, I noticed that while they were nearly aligned, there was something under a millimetre offset that I had previously missed! Then it dawned on me that a fraction of a millimetre between the prong and live centres gets magnified a lot at the end of a 180mm mandrel bar. The lathe was not perfectly aligned, even from new. (This lathe is shipped assembled.)
Slackening the headstock bolts, I quickly had it properly aligned and it runs better - there is less bumping of the tool on the blank once it's round. The moral of this is that alignment does matter, and the longer the piece you're turning the more accurate it must be.
Now I need to see if my club has a 2xMT2 alignment tool in its tool library so that I can get it perfectly aligned ...
T
Yesterday, took a closer look. The end of the mandrel rod as a couple of millimetres off from the centre of the mandrel live centre. When I turned the lathe by hand, the offset didn't move, proving that it wasn't the bar that was bent. I cleaned all the Morse Tapers, but it made no difference.
Going back to the "kiss test" again, I noticed that while they were nearly aligned, there was something under a millimetre offset that I had previously missed! Then it dawned on me that a fraction of a millimetre between the prong and live centres gets magnified a lot at the end of a 180mm mandrel bar. The lathe was not perfectly aligned, even from new. (This lathe is shipped assembled.)
Slackening the headstock bolts, I quickly had it properly aligned and it runs better - there is less bumping of the tool on the blank once it's round. The moral of this is that alignment does matter, and the longer the piece you're turning the more accurate it must be.
Now I need to see if my club has a 2xMT2 alignment tool in its tool library so that I can get it perfectly aligned ...
T
