How does one go about testing the flatness and trueness
of v-ways (for example, those on the cross slide of a
lathe) during the scraping process? I can't imagine
being able to get at the surfaces with a straight edge
like on bed ways.

In article , Artemia Salina
says...

How does one go about testing the flatness and trueness
of v-ways (for example, those on the cross slide of a
lathe) during the scraping process? I can't imagine
being able to get at the surfaces with a straight edge
like on bed ways.

If you read connelly you find that dovetail surfaces
basically need a master gage to scrape to. That's
part of the fun, getting the angle gage.

You first scrape one surface to be accurate, using
the gage to get the angle correct. Of course at the
same time you have to maintain parallelism and so on
between the two sides.

Then you use the one scraped dovetail part as a
gage, to do the mating surface.

Jim

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On Sun, 09 Nov 2003 14:21:03 -0500, Artemia Salina wrote:
How does one go about testing the flatness and trueness
of v-ways (for example, those on the cross slide of a
lathe) during the scraping process? I can't imagine
being able to get at the surfaces with a straight edge
like on bed ways.

Then you need to stretch your imagination. :-)

If you can get to them to scrape them, you should be able
to get to them to check them. Some disassembly may be
(almost certainly will be) required. You may need a smaller
straight edge, or you may be able to bring the part over to
the surface plate for checking.

Gary

On Sun, 09 Nov 2003 14:21:03 -0500, Artemia Salina wrote:

v-ways

Now why the heck did I say v-ways? I meant to say dovetails.

What a brain-o.