It's not likely that any HSM needs a tailstock center with a guaranteed
accuracy of 0.00005".

It's also not likely that a tailstock is adjusted to that accuracy. A
tailstock's center axis deviates considerably more than that every time it's
moved, or ambient temperatures change.

Furthermore, it's highly unlikely that any HSM's parts need to be made to
that accuracy, or that the HSM would need to accurately measure parts to
that accuracy.

Anyone that's trying to accomplish these levels of accuracy in tooling is
chasing a rainbow.
One could buy 10 reasonably priced, quality centers and keep 2 or 3 that are
most accurate, return the others. An accurate measuring setup could be
assembled on a
surface plate instead of actually using the parts.

The pressure applied by the tailstock can be monitored, if you like the
prices of a center with an integral pressure gauge. Rohm is one brand, but
you may have trouble finding a model in the MT 2 size.

--
WB
..........


"Doug White" wrote in message
...
Thanks to the suggestions on a machining problem I posed in another
thread,
it looks like I need to buy myself a live center. My lathe is an Emco
Maier Super 11, which has a #2 Morse taper. It was bought new & babied
since, so it's capable of doing very accurate work.

There are quite a few options, with a pretty wide range of prices. I
could
go with a $40 dual bearing model with no specified accuracy, up to a
kilobuck for a Royal toolmakers set with interchangeable points and a TIR
of 0.00005".

I don't mind spending a few hundred bucks but I'd like to make sure I get
the most bang for those bucks. I'm leary of Chinese stuff unless I get
more than annecdotal info that a certain brand is OK. I like the idea of
interchangeable points, but assume you have to pay serious bucks to
maintain accuracy with such a setup.

The floor is open..

Thanks!

Doug White