Tail stock out of alignment

[Shane Sura]

I have a slightly weird one. I have the Harbor Freight Lathe. I have had it for some time and so far it has performed great as many on this forum have found. Today while turning pens the pen mandrel was out of alignment with the live center by a full 1/16 of an inch. Obviously this led to slightly out of round pens. I was able to fix it by sanding on the other side and moving the pen closer to the head stock. Now the weird part. When I move the tail stock close to the headstock it is dead on center to center (maybe 1/64).

So naturally I thought it was the pen mandrel and I was going to buy a new on when this job was over. However, using a complicated measuring technique :D the pen mandrel is straight. So I took a jacobs check and a straight machined punch and it was also a 1/16 out of alignment.

The bed of the lathe is straight and level as best as I can tell. I released the rear bolts holding it to the table in case it was introducing a twist and no fix. Any ideas or is this normal the longer you go down the bed?

Shane

[Barry Elder]

Check to make sure the headstock is aligned with the bed.

[Gordon Seto]

Which HF model? the Jet 1236 clone?
Is the misalignment horizontal or vertical?

[Shane Sura]

Yes it is the 1236 clone. It is horizontally out of alignment. I have to push the pen mandrel away from me in order to get it to fit in the live center. I have also tried different centers. What is confusing me is it is dead on when the tail and head stock are close together.

Shane

[Gordon Seto]

Inspect and clean the Morse Taper.
Re-insert the MT at 90° and see whether the mis-alignment change to vertical.
Level the lathe bed.

[Glenn Hodges]

Make yourself a big wooden mallet. If that doesn't work make a larger one. Couldn't resist it?

[Jim Becker]

Cast iron bends. Re-level the base after loosening the lathe bed and then re-tighten.

[Shane Sura]

I got it straightened out. The positive stops for the turning head stock was slightly off. It is dead on as it gets closer to the headstock but because it was off slightly not directly lined up to the bed when it went further out it was not lined up. I pulled it apart filed it a bit then made sure it did not lock all the way. Now it is dead on. If I need to move it again I will have to line it up but I don't move the head stock much.


Shane