Enco Lathe bed straightness and wtb a steadyrest

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kiinstructor

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have an Enco lathe that Ive been using for awhile. Its a 12x36 built back in the early 90s. The lathe sits on a Grizzly stand with a 3/4 inch piece of plywood between the bed and stand. Ive notice that the tailstock is off a bit. Left and right is easy to correct with the set screws but the up and down is impossible. I think the bed is off. How do you set the bed levelness? Also I need a steadyrest for the lathe and I cant seem to find one anywhere. Im hoping there is some kind of universal steady rest available somewhere. Im all in favor of building one myself as long as its accurate and fairly user friendly. Thanks for ideas and help. I appreciate your advise very much.
 
I think you can use shim stock for the up and down alignment.

Call Enco they have great customer and product support.
 
kiinstructor said:
I have an Enco lathe that Ive been using for awhile. Its a 12x36 built back in the early 90s. The lathe sits on a Grizzly stand with a 3/4 inch piece of plywood between the bed and stand. Ive notice that the tailstock is off a bit. Left and right is easy to correct with the set screws but the up and down is impossible. I think the bed is off. How do you set the bed levelness? Also I need a steadyrest for the lathe and I cant seem to find one anywhere. Im hoping there is some kind of universal steady rest available somewhere. Im all in favor of building one myself as long as its accurate and fairly user friendly. Thanks for ideas and help. I appreciate your advise very much.
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i had a machinist buddy of mine make me a 1.00" diameter stainless bar with centers
because i was convinced i had the same problem you do.
run an indicator , magnetic on your cross slide , from head to tail, on top of bar
mine was .004" too low
i also use for front to back alignment as im constantly offsetting my tailstock
 
You can hammer a thin razor blade in front bottom of tail stock to get it right.worked on mine for ten years perfect!
Good luck.Jerry2
 
Just a thought, is the bed level and square? Is the head stock? I once watched a maintenance guy try to tram in a spindle on a turning center (CNC lathe). He was trying to shim the head stock and spindle for run out. He was having a terrible time of it. I asked him if the spindle was square on the casting. He checked the length of his test bar. The spindle and head stock where cocked off on an angle. Maybe your issue is not the tail stock. If it where then there would be singes of wear. A ground test bar should help with this.

Jim.
 
Ive found some enco steady rests on line but their asking a fortune. One as high as 600.00. I think Ill have to come up with something home made. Any ideas or pic of steady rests that are not commercially made would be appreciated. As far as the bed goes. I didnt alighn it with the head when I bolted it down. Didnt know that much and how it would affect the overall performance with the lathe. Live and learn.
 
Nineballjerry2 said:
You can hammer a thin razor blade in front bottom of tail stock to get it right.worked on mine for ten years perfect!
Good luck.Jerry2
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mine is a sheldon, world war two era , actually it was a military lathe.

tailstock is not the original ,
guy that worked for sheldon told me that wasnt uncommon,
as they scavenged parts

so they had a bunch of shims under it.
i guess over the years the shims have worn or shifted

my machinist buddy is going to make me a plate on his mill and i can get all those shims outta there
 
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