Kenny G wrote on 02/23/16 at 09:45:38:Dave,
I am not trying to hijack this thread, but I remember your question about reducing the chatter in your cut on your lathe.
Usually the accepted procedure for aligning the cutting tool is to put a center in the tail stock and line up the cutting tool with the point on the center.
Kenny G
For years I was fighting the chatter on my lathe, as it was there from the very first day I bought the lathe.....and I couldn't do anything to make it go away. At first I figured that I was doing something wrong, and I had the wrong cutting tool shape, depth of cut, rate of feed, type of material, etc. And any changes I made didn't matter....the lathe speed or cutting feed changes would alter the shape of the pattern - but it was always there. Even when cutting soft PVC pipe it would make a pattern - so I couldn't believe that tool chatter was an issue.
I began to consider that maybe the very expensive head stock bearings were bad - then earlier this year I noticed that even when you were not cutting....you could feel a strong vibration in the levers and dials of the lathe. I unhooked the motor....and when the motor was running by itself and no pulley on the motor...the lathe was still vibrating. I had the motor rebuilt - then I rewired the electric feed and directional switch......and the vibration went away. I believe the motor was wired incorrectly.
The lathe works really well now!
In the photo below you can see the marks left in the material when I was trying to use the lathe a year ago......and the shiny part on the right side is the way the lathe cuts after having worked on the motor.