"Bernie Bober" wrote in message
...
Hello Steve,

I was helping a fellow the other night with his new lathe and to my
surprise the #2 taper in both the headstock and tailstock were not
machined properly which resulted in my Jacob's chuck not seating properly.
The hole in the head/tailstock was 3/8 and the diameter of the smallest
part of a #2 MT should be around 0.572 and I suspect this one was a bit
bigger resulting in my #2 not being able to seat as the end of it butted
up against the smaller 3/8 shoulder. I suggested he take his new lathe
back and request a new one with the properly machined tapers. I was quite
surprised as the lathe he got was the same make and model as mine I bought
a year ago and mine is alright. Oh well it must have been made on a
Monday or Friday.... ha ha. To temporarily solve his problem it only took
a single ply of newspaper to shim the taper to fit. The live center and
drive center that came with the lathe fit alright but were stubby #2's. I
told him another way to get around that problem would be to just cut or
grind the smaller end of the taper (if he got a taper that wouldn't seat)
off by an 1/8th of an inch or so. Do what you gotta do.

Just my two bit's.

Bernie Bober.

I have heard of some mini-lathes not accepting standard #2 morse tapers;
they require the stubby ones.
Billh