Ignoramus17663 wrote:

So, you are recommending to cut such a rod, or what

No, NOI, the whole idea is that you use a shaft
that was centerless ground, and is known to be of
consistent diameter far better than anything you
could do in a home shop. Most of that stuff is
accurate to .0001" or better.

The idea, which may or may not be true, is that
such a bar will deflect a lot less under the touch
of a dial test indicator than it will under
cutting forces.

Well, if you refer to levelling, I already made some attempt to level
it with a machinist level and so on.

Yes, but that is not quite as good as a master
precision level. I know that my Atlas/Craftsman
lathe worked a lot better after I got one of those
(in my case .00075"/foot) and releveled it.

Unfortunately, I do not have the adaptor for the spindle for doing
this... My spindle needs a "clausing to MT3" adaptor, which is similar
somewhat to MT5 outside but is not MT5. I wish I did...

You may be able to grind such an adaptor using the
compound swivel. (Of course, a taper attachment
is a lot better and easier to set to the right
angle.) You grind it a bit, then test fit with
spotting dye, adjust swivel and do again, until
the dye shows a lot of contact area between the parts.
Anyway, Jon, so outwardly t would seem to you that the lathe is usable
as is, right?


Yes, for general shop use, it should be fine. If
you need to fit a journal bearing, it might take
some careful work to hold tolerances, but for 90+%
of lathe work you'll have no problem.

Jon