When using a live center in the tailstock, it should rotate at the same
speed as your work piece.

The headstock and tailstock should be in alignment. If you have trouble
adjusting the alignment by eye, you can buy a morse taper alignment tool (a
straight shaft with #2 morse taper on each end) for about $17 US or have an
experienced turner make one for you out of wood.

Your workpiece should not oscillate unless you are intentionally doing
offcenter turning.

Tailstock pressure should be enough to solidly hold the workpiece without
deforming the workpiece. For pens and smaller pieces, it doesn't take a lot
of pressure. If you put too much pressure on your pen mandrel you will get
deflection.

MH


"MikeMac" wrote in message
...
Hello all..

I found a decent deal at the local RONA today, picked up the Delta Midi
lathe for CDN $245.. the only tool I really didn't have, but thought it
was a good deal.. and the idea of making pens intrigues me.. went to Lee
Valley and bought the kits, the reams, CA glue, all that fun stuff.

So I got home, and I set it up today, (after cleaning alot of grease off
of it) and it seems to run fine. Put a piece of walnut in it, and gave er
a try.

After the chips settled, I found I ran into a few questions.

When I mount the wood in the lathe, how much 'pressure' do you put on the
tailstock.. how hard do I screw it in?

After getting it rounded off, I noticed that:

1: the tailstock head spins slowly with the piece, but not at the same
speed.. is that normal?
2: the piece oscillates ever so little.. If I back off the tailstock head
a bit, the tailstock pin stops turning, & the oscillating stops. Is that
normal?
3: If I line up the point of the headstock, and the point on the
tailstock, the don't line up perfectly.. (less than 1 mm diff). Does this
really matter?

thanks for any and all advice.