Barry... Thanks for info... I will check out Sears tomorrow before K-Mart
gets a hold of them... LOL




"Barry N. Turner" wrote in message
.. .
Sure enough, you have a cheap/defective spur center. Try Sears for a new
one. You ought to be able to get one for about $10. You can work around
the cheap/defective one by making criss-cross sawcuts in the ends of your
blanks, but you'll be happier if you just replace it now.

Barry


"buck" wrote in message
rvers.com...
Just received a rather inexpensive HF lathe and it is set up and ready
to go. I noticed that the spur center is a MT-1 that has 4 individual
spurs on it. The spurs themselves are flat across the ends and not
sharp at all...And I mean really flat, like over a 3/32" flat. So when
tightening up the tailstock the spur center spurs don't dig in at all.
I don't know if this is normal for a spur center to not have sharp
spurs. I had a jet lathe a few years back and I'm pretty sure the spurs
on the spur center where really quite sharp. I know you are not suppose
to sink the spurs into the workpiece by using the tailstock but I do
know that by using easy pressure I could sink the spurs into the wood by
gentle turning the tailstock. So my long-winded question is: Do I have
some really cheap/defective spur center and live center which I should
replace? The only MT-1 that I have been able to find online are from
Grizzly and run about $4.00 so I imagine these are probably real cheap
also and I don't know if they are sharp or not. If it looks like I
should replace the spur center and live center are there any suggestion
sources that provide mid-priced centers?

-Thanks for any and all help