Need advice from Jet 1642 EVS-2 owners

[Paul Coffin]

Hi,
I am finally getting some free time to play with my new Jet 1642 and have a couple of questions.

1) When I put the spur center and live center in the lathe and slide the tail stock up to the headstock, the points line up if you are looking straight down vertically on the lathe, but when looking horizontally the point on the tailstock is a little low relative to the head stock. I placed a .008 inch thick shim under the base of the tailstock under the edge nearest to the head stock and then things line up perfectly. I just used paper to do this experiment, but think I might buy some SS shim stock and bend up a piece that will fit under and be trapped by the tailstock edge. The shim would then slide along with the tailstock. Has anyone else had this problem? how did you fix it? Or is being off by .008 OK?

2) Does anybody really use the upper wire cage assembly when they are turning? I looks like it makes the work very difficult to see to me.

Thanks for the help

-Paul

[Steve Schlumpf]

Paul - before you go to all the trouble of shimming your tailstock - take the time to make sure your lathe is 100% level. You would be surprised at how much twist you will get in the bed when the lathe is just a little off bubble!

[Paul Coffin]

Good idea, I just assumed that since it so big it would not twist. I will check with a level tomorrow and see it that helps.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Paul - you should be able to do a search here on this same subject. You will find that it happens a lot and most of the time the cure has been to level the lathe!

[Paul Coffin]

Paul - before you go to all the trouble of shimming your tailstock - take the time to make sure your lathe is 100% level. You would be surprised at how much twist you will get in the bed when the lathe is just a little off bubble!


I just went out and checked the late bed for being level. It was a little off, so I adjusted the feet to bring it level. The tailstock is still low by the same amount. I have also checked the bottom of the tailstock for a burr that might be rocking the tailstock down when tightened but did not find any. I should slide the headstock off and also check it for a burr or debris that might be holding it too high. I have not done that yet because it is to heavy! How close do you think they need to be?

[Steve Schlumpf]

Paul - when mine was off I played around with leveling for awhile and got everything to line up point-to-point. Make sure you take a bubble reading on each end of the bed as well as across the bed at multiple points to make sure there is no twist.

Other than that - I hope one of other folks who experienced the same problem will kick in with their fix action.

[charlie knighton]

what Steve said

[Mike Lipke]

Yes it is heavy, but yes it will twist. If you don't believe it, put a paint stirring stick under one leg and see what it does to your alignment.

[Richard Madison]

Paul, My wire basket and wire tool shelf are still in original bubble wrap on a shelf somewhere. A vertical offset of .008 is too much. Hope sliding, cleaning, and leveling solves the problem.

[Paul Coffin]

Lifting the lathe from the middle of the bed corrected a portion of the vertical offset. It went from .008 to around .004, I have not removed the headstock yet to check for dirt or burrs.

[Paul Coffin]

More progress, I removed the headstock and cleaned the bottom sliding surfaces and also removed some paint from the edge of the lathe bed that the headstock might have been sitting on. Now the tailstock is only about .002 inch vertically low relative to the headstock. That is the thickness of the paper I was using as a shim under the end of the tailstock closest to the headstock. That was measured with the lathe level. Do I call that good enough? That is abous the same amount of play that the tailsotck has when you slide it side to side prior to tightening it down.

-Paul

[Steve Schlumpf]

Sounds good to me! Start turning!

[Mike Lipke]

You are good to go.