Machinist ruler with bubble level

[Renegade_56]

I use a long rod and an indicator. The coaxials are nice but the one I have doesn't stick out as far as I want. On a metal lathe they would work fine but on the small Taig based lathes like my Deluxe those beds are hard to get perfectly flat and true.

Just know that those Coaxial Indicators are Comparative Indicators, meaning they are good for centering but will not give an accurate measurement if you wanted to determine say how many thousandths a step is. You know this by the lengths of the various probes. Mine has a 1/2 dozen diff. length probes. Obviously, the Longer probes will move the dial more than the shorter probes on the same step. Probably one of the probes is fairly accurate, just use Jo Blocks to determine which one.

Axial Centerlines are Axial Centerlines, no incremental measurements needed for that. If it's different with a long reach than a short one there are more problems to be dealt with.

 

[aphelps1]

For the tail stock I have a precision chuck with morse taper with a piece of thompson shaft. throw the four jaw on the lathe and indicate an indicator in the four jaw. slide the tail stock up lock it in and check it with the indicator. adjust as nessesary until you get tail stock to zero. you can use different length shafts to check at other positions. An old 40 year hungarian machinist taught me this way, once its done your good for about 20 years unless you have a huge crash and tip your lathe over :grin:.

Any time a 40 year machinist shares his wisdom, I'm all ears. Thanks for posting another method.

Alan

 

[POOLGODBEWITHME]

No problem

Any time a 40 year machinist shares his wisdom, I'm all ears. Thanks for posting another method.

Alan

Yea, he's probably one of the most intelligent people I've ever met. On top of being a world class machinist he's also a chess grand master, we went to Chicago for a work thing a couple years ago and went by a guy hustling chess in one of the parks, my buddy sat down and torched him for about $500 in a half hour, the guy said "I've had enough! I can't beat you!" I've been lucky to be taught mostly by the old Europeans or guys who learned from them.

 

[pdcue]

Dale,
I've set tailstocks like that for 20 yrs., just wanted to use the method with flat bar and level to recheck things out. BTW, I don't think my eyes are as good as they were 20 yrs. ago either. If I had thrown a lathe in the river 20 yrs. ago, I might be more ahead of the game now.

Alan

Wouldn't we all be.

No doubt the standard 'set up bar' is a good method. But the "two pointy
things at either end" method seems to work fine. And you can use the
above mentioned razor blade on the point to check alignment even with
old eyes.

Dale