accuracy of Hightower Deluxe is superb

J

JerseyBill

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have to say, I am surprised how accurate the deluxe lathe is. I had a friend come over today, ( al Phelps) a cuebuilder from Maryland
and he showed me how to dial it in. Well , IT"S DEAD NUTS . and I'm so proud of it. It's been holding me back. Now I'm enthusiastic, and going gung ho making cues. Thankyou Alan Phelps. cuemaker extraordinaire. AND thankyou Chris Hightower, EVERYONE should buy one. They are versatile, and great for almost every job in making cues.
Chris, keep up the great work.
Bill
no longer selling anything in my shop because of this.
 
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JerseyBill said:
I have to say, I am surprised how accurate the deluxe lathe is. I had a friend come over today, ( al Phelps) a cuebuilder from Maryland
and he showed me how to dial it in. Well , IT"S DEAD NUTS . and I'm so proud of it. It's been holding me back. Now I'm enthusiastic, and going gung ho making cues. Thankyou Alan Phelps. cuemaker extraordinaire. AND thankyou Chris Hightower, EVERYONE should buy one. They are versatile, and great for almost every job in making cues.
Chris, keep up the great work.
Bill
no longer selling anything in my shop because of this.
Click to expand...

Hello Bill,

Care to share a little of what you learned?
 
This is common in the cuebuilding world, getting frustrated to the point of F' it all, then something happens and it all works out alright, and we can't even remember wanting to quit it all....
Glad your staying Bill, It's a love/hate relationship that drives us..... nuts at times, but also drives us foward.
Dave
 
This is why so many say to have the lathe correctly levelled and aligned.
But there is actually more to it than meets the eye.
There was a thread with a whole bunch of info in correctly setting up a machine tool.
Maybe some one can chime in and find that thread.
Glad it is all good for you Bill.
Maybe Bill can enlighten as to what was required to get his set up aligned and true.
Neil
 
alan phelps is probably the most underrated cuemaker in the world. his cue are beautiful and they have the perfect feedback in the hit. and don't even get me started on his shafts. doesnt surprise me at all that he was able, and willing, to help someone out.
 
Dave38 said:
This is common in the cuebuilding world, getting frustrated to the point of F' it all, then something happens and it all works out alright, and we can't even remember wanting to quit it all....
Glad your staying Bill, It's a love/hate relationship that drives us..... nuts at times, but also drives us foward.
Dave
Click to expand...
Did you say nuts AT TIMES ?
I asked my late mentor one time how many times he cried while making cues ?
He laughed it off.
I'm glad Bill had his Deluxe lathe dialed in. I believe he has a metal lathe or two too.
He should be gung ho from here.
I'm looking forward to seeing his cues.
 
Hello Bill,

Glad you sticking around, I can always use another person to learn from,lol.

I'm with everyone else in the thread, we all wanna know what you learned and what was done. :)
 
share info

Busbee Cue said:
Hello Bill,

Care to share a little of what you learned?
Click to expand...
Chris Hightower is more than happy to help everyone, Some of us are slower to pick it up....DUH,,,
Chris sells a toolpost connected to a dial indicator. I was doing all kinds of things and never got it right. I put a shim under the talestock and thought it was straight but when alan took it out, it was straight...LOL
He brought his toolpost/dial indicator and we put in a sharp dead center in both the tailstock and chuck, they came right to the point of each other as if married. Chris had it setup perfect all along and I just didn't really know what i was doing...I used his trueing up method of chuck by putting a quarter in the chuck and cutting, and never got it true?
I thought,, but actually I did.
When dialing in a shaft, which is what you need to do before working on all shafts I find out. especially repairs. I wasn't using "Chris's advice and using cigarette papers for dialing in. It's what you need to do. Go out and buy some even if you don't smoke. They work. just put them on the side that is closest to the cutting tool in the chuck and make that side further form the tool? Easy right,,,NOT FOR ME>>... I read Chris's book over again last night on several of those topics and now it is clear,,,I've seen it done on four jaw chucks and have done it myself, but for some reason this deluxe,lathe got my head spinning and I went out on a tangent in my thinking , trying to find my own method of centering work. It's just basic...Listen to Chris, he'll get you there. I needed Alan Phelps to do a show and tell with his own toolpost and indictor he brought to my house with him, and it all just unlocked my brain. Some things are that way in life, I found my treatment of women to be the same...I never understood them, and now I've learned a whole lot at sixty five years old??lol Who needs it now...oh, well maybe?
thanks for listening..
Bill

glad to answer anything I can.
 
cues

JoeyInCali said:
Did you say nuts AT TIMES ?
I asked my late mentor one time how many times he cried while making cues ?
He laughed it off.
I'm glad Bill had his Deluxe lathe dialed in. I believe he has a metal lathe or two too.
He should be gung ho from here.
I'm looking forward to seeing his cues.
Click to expand...

Joey, I'll put a couple of simple cues I've done up next week. After that I'm going for some fancier stuff ala classic style. I seem to like that most.
thanks for the vote of confidence.
Bill
 
More often than not I need "visuals" or an actual hands on experience or so called lesson before I fully understand it myself.

Sent from my SCH-I535
 
JerseyBill said:
Chris Hightower is more than happy to help everyone, Some of us are slower to pick it up....DUH,,,
Chris sells a toolpost connected to a dial indicator. I was doing all kinds of things and never got it right. I put a shim under the talestock and thought it was straight but when alan took it out, it was straight...LOL
He brought his toolpost/dial indicator and we put in a sharp dead center in both the tailstock and chuck, they came right to the point of each other as if married. Chris had it setup perfect all along and I just didn't really know what i was doing...I used his trueing up method of chuck by putting a quarter in the chuck and cutting, and never got it true?
I thought,, but actually I did.
When dialing in a shaft, which is what you need to do before working on all shafts I find out. especially repairs. I wasn't using "Chris's advice and using cigarette papers for dialing in. It's what you need to do. Go out and buy some even if you don't smoke. They work. just put them on the side that is closest to the cutting tool in the chuck and make that side further form the tool? Easy right,,,NOT FOR ME>>... I read Chris's book over again last night on several of those topics and now it is clear,,,I've seen it done on four jaw chucks and have done it myself, but for some reason this deluxe,lathe got my head spinning and I went out on a tangent in my thinking , trying to find my own method of centering work. It's just basic...Listen to Chris, he'll get you there. I needed Alan Phelps to do a show and tell with his own toolpost and indictor he brought to my house with him, and it all just unlocked my brain. Some things are that way in life, I found my treatment of women to be the same...I never understood them, and now I've learned a whole lot at sixty five years old??lol Who needs it now...oh, well maybe?
thanks for listening..
Bill

glad to answer anything I can.
Click to expand...

I will let you in in a little secret that I learned after a year of fighting the wobble/run out in the scroll chuck. I would put in the dead center and it I could see the point moving. An indicator showed about 15 thou run out at the tip. I recut/trued up the chuck jaws many times to no avail.

Scroll chucks are not noted for their accuracy and .001 to .002 run out is common even when spinning true.

There is another little known fact about scroll chucks. The 3 holes that you put your tommy bar in to tighten it clamp differently. Put the center in the chuck and put an indicator on it. Run the spindle on the slowest speed and watch the indicator.

Mark the 3 holes in the chuck with a marker 1, 2, 3. Tighten and and loosen the chuck while watching the indicator. (turn the lathe off each time) You will find one of the holes consistantly runs the center truer than the other 2 holes.

Because of this, I never need to use paper to shim anything except a warped cue. I can always find one of the holes to make most anything run true with a little play of turning the shaft a 1/4 turn and re clamping and/or using another hole to clamp the chuck ......and reading the indicator.

try it you will see.........

Kim
 
whammo57 said:
I will let you in in a little secret that I learned after a year of fighting the wobble/run out in the scroll chuck. I would put in the dead center and it I could see the point moving. An indicator showed about 15 thou run out at the tip. I recut/trued up the chuck jaws many times to no avail.

Scroll chucks are not noted for their accuracy and .001 to .002 run out is common even when spinning true.

There is another little known fact about scroll chucks. The 3 holes that you put your tommy bar in to tighten it clamp differently. Put the center in the chuck and put an indicator on it. Run the spindle on the slowest speed and watch the indicator.

Mark the 3 holes in the chuck with a marker 1, 2, 3. Tighten and and loosen the chuck while watching the indicator. (turn the lathe off each time) You will find one of the holes consistantly runs the center truer than the other 2 holes.

Because of this, I never need to use paper to shim anything except a warped cue. I can always find one of the holes to make most anything run true with a little play of turning the shaft a 1/4 turn and re clamping and/or using another hole to clamp the chuck ......and reading the indicator.

try it you will see.........

Kim
Click to expand...

Is this with a 3 or 4 jaw chuck ???

Concerning where you put the t-bars, on mine, the left side has 3 holes, the right side (the side the jaws are on) has 4 holes.

Sent from my SCH-I535
 
Here's my fancy indicator.
Half a thou per click. Not one thou.
I glued a wooden disc at the bottom.
Them two earth magnets.
Voila, will stick to the tool post , with or without the tool holder or tool bit, your choice
I don't like the big ones with one thou per click display.

This one gets me accuracy.
It'd be your choice what accuracy you want before turning or facing.

I have other gizmos to help.
 

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whammo57 said:
I will let you in in a little secret that I learned after a year of fighting the wobble/run out in the scroll chuck. I would put in the dead center and it I could see the point moving. An indicator showed about 15 thou run out at the tip. I recut/trued up the chuck jaws many times to no avail.

Scroll chucks are not noted for their accuracy and .001 to .002 run out is common even when spinning true.

There is another little known fact about scroll chucks. The 3 holes that you put your tommy bar in to tighten it clamp differently. Put the center in the chuck and put an indicator on it. Run the spindle on the slowest speed and watch the indicator.

Mark the 3 holes in the chuck with a marker 1, 2, 3. Tighten and and loosen the chuck while watching the indicator. (turn the lathe off each time) You will find one of the holes consistantly runs the center truer than the other 2 holes.

Because of this, I never need to use paper to shim anything except a warped cue. I can always find one of the holes to make most anything run true with a little play of turning the shaft a 1/4 turn and re clamping and/or using another hole to clamp the chuck ......and reading the indicator.

try it you will see.........

Kim
Click to expand...
You're better off marking chuck number one then make your own collets .
If you're not making your own collets, you deserve all the trouble.

For collars, you're better off using a router and a good spiral end mill.
Angle the tool post to match half the taper of the shaft and butt .
Usually .007" per inch would be good enough as .014" taper is the cookie-cutter taper .
Drill the hole then route the finish size at the angle needed. Slowly move that router to the wall and route that hole with an angle.
Mark where chuck one was.
Cut the slit near that chuck mark. Go back to it every time you use your collet . Move it around if needed.
 
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