The adjusters seemed much less interactive than before when the tail was not on a single point or maybe it was the flexing plates. ways) and leveled from headstock, mid-bases and then tail-base and removed stub shaft as tail-bases adjusters took the weight. Liptons trick of putting the tail pedestal on a single point (stub shaft parallel w. It seems to be holding level now, in direct contact with the concrete floor with no steel plates flexing with load, and its that much lower to the floor, Im not 6'4' It's easiest to metaly visualize it as your trying to roll the shaft towards or away from the tool tip until you get a parallel cut. If large at the tailstock end then just the opposite.

If your test cuts show small at the tailstock end you come up on the rear supports and down on the front. I still leave the headstock end alone since it's the most rigid area and adjust that taper out using the center and tailstock support feet. Tom had to adjust his headstock casting but that would be the very last thing I'd touch unless I was 100% positive it was out and it's not something else.Ĭhecking for any taper is done with test cuts as Tom shows. On a larger lathe it's tiring, can take a fair amount of time and a bit frustrating with all the up and down making adjustments until the whole machine is level and bearing equally on the support feet. Even with the machine as perfectly level as you can get it I've found some minor adjusting is still required after making test cuts. Only then do you align the tailstocks spindle to center it with the headstocks spindle cener line. Once all the support feet are taking the weight you then double check all measurements to make sure nothings shifted. Then level the cross direction at the tailstock end. But basicaly you start with the headstock end and get that leveled across the ways, then get the bedways leveled from the tailstocks end in the longitudinal direction with the headstocks end. My previous trial and error efforts until I learned what works on smaller lathes sure seems to agree with everything Tom Lipton mentions with his larger lathe. I think his work is now up to about the 7th edition but doing a Google search will pull up at least a couple of websites that have PDF's of his testing methods that should be helpful as well. Georg Schlesinger pretty much wrote the book on testing machine tools. Properly aligning and testing a machine tool is a far more complex topic to understand than it first seems.

I think it's just what your looking for Weedy. Fwiw I just watched Tom Liptons lathe leveling video on his Oxtools Youtube channel last night.

Leveling bed on a atlas lathe