On Monday, November 28, 2016 at 12:34:15 PM UTC-5, Bob La Londe wrote:

This brings us to failure number two. After I put it back together I threw
a piece of stock in the chuck and turned a point to align the tailstock to.
Then I threw a dead center in the tail stock and started lining up the
points. When I got out my loupe I found the center was blunt. Looked like
maybe it was dropped. I couldn't see it with just my glasses on, but it was
clear to see with the loupe. Thinking maybe I dropped it and didn't
remember I got one out of the tool cart that had never been used before. It
was also blunt. It was a nice tiny dome, but it was blunt. Orders of
magnitude bigger than the tip on my turned point. Atleast it seemed uniform
so I dialed it in as best I could. I realize even with hardened and ground
steel handling is coming to take off needle tips from an object that heavy,
so maybe that's the norm. I don't know. Both centers came with the lathe so
perhaps they are just lower grade Chinese parts. Do all dead centers have a
domed tip when looked at under a glass?

I don't know whether this is common knowledge or not, but an old machinist showed me how to get the alignment pretty damned close without a loupe. You bring the two points together, and capture a piece of flat stock between them - he used his 60 degree center gauge. Any misalignment becomes immediately obvious by the tilt of the metal.