On Nov 8, 8:27*pm, Wes wrote:
Ignoramus3975 wrote:
My clausing lathe cuts tapers instead of straight cylinders.

I am trying to set up my Clausing lathe in a way that eliminates the
possibility that these tapers are caused by anything other than wear
on the lathe (ie, improper leveling, etc)

To that end, I leveled this lathe with a Starrett 98 level.

Did I see the tailstock supporting the other end of your stock? I don't think so.

Your stock is deflecting. *You needed to have a live center in *a properly adjusted
tailstock. *The LtoD ratio is way wrong. *Put a test indicator on the far end, press down
on the stock and see the deflection. *

Wes

--
"Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect
government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home
in their eyes." *Dick Anthony Heller

Wes, I'm not sure that his tailstock is deflecting, but if his lathe
consistently cuts the same tapers, the tailstock is definitely set
off center. Thats how some of us intentionally cut tapers.

A quick and simple test is to put a dead center in both the headstock
and tailstock, bring them point to point, and using a strong
magnifier, see how closely the points meet. I'm not sure about other
brands, but the tailstocks on Clousing and Atlas lathes have a
tailstock adjustment to do just this.

The key here is that the OP says the tapers are consistent. This
strongly suggests tailstock offset, although there may obviously be
other problems. Still. for consistently tapered cuts, I'd first
eliminate issues that generally trace back to tailstock mis-alignment.

Harry C.