"woodworker88" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Nov 1, 7:25 am, "PeterM" wrote:
I may not use the right terms, I'm a little new at this, but is there a
speed that I need to be, to see if my spindle in the lathe has any
runout?
One of my friends asked me what the run out was....He thinking about
buying
my lathe......Peter

Best checked with the drive disconnected (belts slack/gears in
neutral), turning it by hand. Take a dial indicator, indicate on
either the surface of a dead center, the OD of the register (the
precision part against which the chuck seats) or the inside of the
spindle bore. Find the low point, zero the indicator, and find the
high point. The measurement is your TIR, total indicator reading,
which is what people usually refer to when they talk about runout.


What Ww88 said, but avoid running an indicator on a center. While it
*should* provide a proper reading, there's no guarantee it will. Centers
have a way of getting slightly altered through handling, and could provide a
false reading that isn't representative of the spindle, proper. Run your
indicator on one of the precision surface features of the spindle. If your
indicator is of fine enough quality, don't expect a perfect circle. I'd
suggest that anything less than .0002" TIR is tolerable, although the less,
the better.

Harold