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.

However, despite that, it still cuts tapers, such as 8/1000 inch per
4 inch of carriage travel. It also produces an uneven finish, which I
would expect to be better. I took some pictures of the finish, which
did not turn out to be good, but I think that you can tell that it is
uneven.

http://igor.chudov.com/projects/Clau...10-Setting-Up/

The surface finish alone could account for quite a bit of diameter
variation.

In short, I want to do everything to align the lathe properly and
produce the best surface possible so that I would only be dealing with
late wear and not any other mistake in turning.

How can I improve the surface finish. This piece that you see in the
chuck is 12L14 steel.

Well, the profile of the cutting tool makes a big
difference, and the speed also can affect the
finish. You want to advance the tool as fast as
you can, to avoid work hardening due to recutting
the same area on each turn. Also, a cutting oil
is pretty important to prevent "built-up edge",
where the workpiece material builds up on the
cutting edge and varies the effective tool
position. You get those characteristic rings on
the turned part.

To properly test for taper, you want to mount a
hardened and ground shaft and use a dial test
indicator on the surface. That eliminates almost
all the deflection.

Jon