Tail Stock leveling?

I recently decided to check the to see if the quill in the tailstock of my 10L ran parallel to the bed ways. I extended the quill to it's max, tightened the lock and ran an indicator back and forward. I found that the rear of the quill was .008" higher than the front. Assuming I could simply shim the front of the castings between the top and base I did so. What I found then was there wasn't a direct correlation between what the indicator read and how thick the shim should be. I now wonder if the rear of the base casting may be higher than the front? How could this be checked?

Thanks,

Pete

The base is probably worn toward the front. Mill it back straight/flat and use a shim between the pieces to then get your height to spec.

The proper way to do it involves scraping, but I'm lost in that arena.

Take the TS apart. On a surface plate, or other very flat surface if you don't have one, and indicate the slides of the bottom piece. Use a dowel pin in the V slide. This will give you an excellent idea of the extent of the problem. You will also want to verify the flatness of the top of the bottom.
There are four alignment tests that should be performed. With the spindle extended; check the vertical and horizontal alignments of the spindle, and do the same with a spindle test bar in the taper hole. If the tests show the same results, you can use one set of the tests, preferably with the test bar, in subsequent tests. The tolerance for these tests is; +- .0005" at the end of 12" test bar horizontal, and 0 to +.0005" high vertical at end of same bar. Once these alignments have been obtained you can then worry about HS-TS center alignment. The easy way is to use shim stock, and I generally go for .001 to .0015" high on the TS.
If the bottom of the top and the top of bottom are flat, the only places you remove material for the alignments are the slides of the bottom piece, either by milling, or preferrably, scraping.
See the "Wreck Update" and the "Another New Toy" stickies in the Monarch forum.
Harry

The dreaded "quill droop." Hate when that happens....

Seriously.

A common wear effect. The ways on the underside the bottom part of the tailstock wear
rocker-shaped and also more at the front than at the rear. So the quill eventually starts to
point downards.