Delta Midi Lathe and Profile Tower Jaws

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:45 pm

I have a few questions about my new setup:

Is it normal for the tailstock (is that the part that holds the drill chuck?) on my lathe to have play in it? In order to avoid this I've committed to pulling the whole tailstock unit to one side of the base of the lathe before locking it down and also tightening down on the part that extends from the tailstock (?) in order to keep some sort of a standard. Is this making sense? All in all I'd say the tailstock's base on the frame has a little less than 1/8" play and if the part that winds out of the tailstock is not tightened down it has right at 1/8" play.

Is this normal?

Also, if one uses profiled tower jaws, even if the sides are square, isn't it real easy to have one corner dip into the the round part of the jaws and thereby making it crooked?

I feel like I've asked these questions in completely the wrong way... Any follow up questions or advice? Anyone near St. Louis want to give me lathe lessons?

Post by **Tyler** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 11:25 pm

Ben,

My Delta Midi has the play you describe. I took mine in to Delta's local repair shop for a burned out capacitor on the motor (a warrantied repair), and mentioned the play. I got the lathe back with no play, but the tailstock was COMPLETELY misaligned. I removed the tailstock and saw the method of "repair". The technician had taken a chisel and whacked a couple of dings in the dovetail on the tailstock to effectively widen the dovetail! Fortunately, a couple strokes of a file had me back where I started. At least that way center was available.

FWIW, they told me when I picked up the lathe that my lathe was in spec with the play, but they had tightened it up for me anyway. Gee thanks! (I think it was probably the first wood lathe any of the techs had ever seen.)

BTW, a trick to make this play almost a non-issue is to bring the drill bit to the spinning wood without the tailstock clamped down. The drill bit, when loosely touched to the spinning wood will naturally find center. You can tell that has happened when the bit ceases all wobbling. Once that occurs, lock the tailstock down and drill on. Perfect center everytime, with the exception of bradpoint and pilot point bits. The points of those are so sharp, they grab whenever they touch and won't slide to center. For that reason, even if I am going to use a brad point bit, I start my drilling with a normal bit then swap after enough of a pilot to force the brad point on center.

Tyler

Tano · Post by **Tano** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 11:31 pm

Hi Ben,

When I bought my delta midi, I also thought that the play was a deffect. Not so, yes it is normal to have a minute play.
Your lathe came with some sort of centering device to hold and turn wood, right? Try to use this tool to learn were the contact point is by chucking a fine drill bit on the tail stock and the tool that came with the lathe on the other end. Bring these two points almost touching and see approximately where the tailstock needs to be locked. Try to do this consistently.
As for the tower jaws holding the block, if both jaws make contact then the block can be drilled, centered. Otherwise yes, a crooked chucked block will result in a non centered hole.
I hope this makes sense.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 9:52 am

Yep, same here.

Great tip Tyler, thanks!

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 9:50 am

I was wondering about this, because I'e never noticed any play in my Jet Mini lathe, so I went down to the workshop just now and inspected it. I hate to say it in light of the comments above, but it has *no* play. It's just exactly loose enough on the bed to allow it to slide back and forth, and it aligns to center each time. I even grabbed the tailstock and wrenched it from side to side, and it didn't percepitibly move at all.

Either I got lucky, or there's a big difference in the Delta and Jet tools....

JSPipes · Post by **JSPipes** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:20 pm

Kurt, you are very lucky on that. Mine has quite a bit of play and is about 3/64 off square and points down and toward the left (looking at it from behind the tailstock). It's so far off that it was absolutely impossible to get a good stem fit. All the holes I drilled with it ended up tapered.

This is what spurred on my decision to buy a metal lathe. That one works the way it's supposed to. The little Midi lathe is now strictly used for sanding disks and buffing wheels, and making the odd tamper now and again.

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:55 pm

Wow!

That's odd. I've seen a Delta lathe up close, and I couldn't imagine that the tailstock could be so far out of alignment. I've been fondling the new Nova lathes at Woodcraft, as well as teh Powermatic and Jet ones, and all of them have nice, tight, centered tailstocks with no play. I wonder if this is a Delta thing - perhaps the way that the tailstock is constructed.

JSPipes · Post by **JSPipes** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:24 am

Kurt, I wasn't clear. Mine is the little Jet mini lathe. Same one that you have.

ckr · Post by **ckr** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 9:47 am

Then I guess I fall into the *lucky* camp. My jet has a tailstock that is tight, it can rattle slightly but any movement in inperceptable and the lineup is dead center with the head stock.

That would leave only my drilling to blame.

Post by **Tyler** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 9:52 pm

I've actually owned both, the Jet Mini and the Delta Midi. Of the two I owned, the Delta was better.

If center was not possible with a lathe, I would definitely return it as a defect. In both I've had, at least center was within the play. I called Delta about the issue, and they said that some amount of pay was within spec.

Tyler

ArtGuy · Post by **ArtGuy** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 3:25 pm

Is there even any way to adjust the tailstock on the jet and delta midi lathes if it is not centered to the headstock?

JSPipes · Post by **JSPipes** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 10:58 pm

John, a big hammer! At least that's my first thought. Next is extreme heating and bending.

Other than that, I have no idea.