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Lathe Check Up - Pleasantly Surprised

Rick_B

Stainless
Joined
Sep 16, 2011
Location
Winston Salem, NC
Well I've gotten to the point of clean up/organization that I can finally see my bench. I decided it was time to give the SB Heavy 9 a health check. I hadn't really checked anything since I competed the rebuild. The last time I used it I was turning a taper (not by design :)) - about .010" in 6". So i started with the spindle bearings and did the indicator/lift test - readings were slightly higher then recommended in HTRAL but close enough that I am not going to redo them right now. I was thinking they would be a lot worse because this was one of the last things I did and I kind of rushed it.

next I checked the TS alignment - it needed a slight horizontal adjustment which I did. The vertical alignment appears to be a little off - but again not enough to tear apart the TS and re-shim it. after adjusting tail stock I turned a piece and the taper was less than .002" - I'm thinking the TS vertical adjustment may fix that.

Then I decided to check spindle speeds - I used an optical tachometer (cheap one from harbor freight) nd checked all one pulley settings on both motor pulley steps and in direct drive and back gear. All 12 speeds were within 5% of the HTRAL speed chart = pretty good given the age of the machine and belt condition.

I didn't check level yet - that's next and then I'll re-check the TS alignment. All in all I was pretty pleased with the condition of the adjustments.

Rick
 
excellent. :)

something that has worked for me in the past and may work for you-

check to see if your tailstock barrell moves toward you when you lock it- my old SB moved about .002" from slop in the bore
if yours moves you can use this "feature":D to your advantage to control taper depending on how hard you lock the barrell

hope this makes sense...
 








 
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