Making use of COVID-19 time at home I decided to clean up the lathe and go through it a bit.
Turns out that crash had moved the head gearbox / spindle on the bed (It bolts to the bed) I have had suspicions of this ever since I have had it. With a ground piece of 3/4” stock in the chuck protruding 1’ and a dial indicator on the carriage I took 4 measurements on the far left and right side, and turned the chuck 180 degrees to null out concentric error. Turned out the spindle was not parallel with the bed, and was off by about .006” per foot. 4 bolts and lots of fussing netted me an error less than .0005” per foot.
Now that I had moved the head it was time to get the tailstock aligned.
Out came the 5mm Allen key socket and 3/8” ratchet. With a little too much force I blew out the cast iron base where the adjusting set screws make contact on a tapered face of the tailstock base. I was trying to adjust it with the tailstock clamped firmly to the bed which was a no-no.
I made a new one out of some O1 steel I got from a buddy. All held in place with 5/16” hardware, and an 1/8” deep “key”.
So- lesson learned - be gentle.
