Dead Center's

I would like to buy a couple of dead centers. I purchased two from a well known lathe supplier but found the runout excessive. Ant recommendations where I might get good quality ones ?

You need to send them back .Tony

Are you sure it's faulty dead centres Alan? You didn't get a good answer to your thread last month asking about your S7 turning tapers.

' Good afternoon folks, I have an issue on my S7 turning a taper. My lathe sits on a Myford cabinet. Using a test bar, a DTI and turning the "dumb Bell" I consistently get a taper ! it tends to be smaller at the headstock end. The taper however is variable. I have taken readings using different equipment.The saddle, crosslide and compound slide are smooth with no slack or looseness, As this issue is turning me to drink, I now hope some one can offer advice.'

Can you explain what the centre trouble is? Badly made Centres are a possibility, though two duds feels unlikely. There are a few tailstock issues causing similar symptoms. Always good to see a few photos.

Dave

‘Well known” can cover a multitude of suppliers from UK based, US based or even Chinese. Question might be whether they have good reputations as well as being well known (hopefully the supplier is not ‘notorious’ as well as well known). There are subtle differences.

Give us a clue. Is this supplier a well known reputable supplier? No name needed.

Two new tapers, one old socket? Check the socket.

Martin C

I suspect you are talking about rotating centres rather than dead centres. Dead centres are, soft which goes into the headstock taper and is machined in situ, and hard which goes into the tailstock, which is then adjusted to turn parallel. rotating or live centres, you pays your money and takes your chance, good ones are expensive for a very good reason, don't expect to get top quality for peanuts, accuracy costs. Remember the tailstock needs adjusting even with a rotating centre to turn parallel.

If the lathe headstock and tailstock are set up correctly there should be no need to make adjustments to use any kind of centre, unless of course the centre is not accurate.

Emgee

Edited By Emgee on 18/08/2020 19:39:14

Dead center's what? Or dead centres?

Having just checked our records, I am happy to confirm that the dead centres which Alan has are not from ARC.

Ketan at ARC.

Edited By Ketan Swali on 18/08/2020 20:07:39

Hi Ketan all OK I did not get them from yourselves, also folks please accept my apologies for the grammatical error ! With regards the taper I eventually carried out the carriage modification recently shown in MEW. this was a very worthwhile mod. and went some way to resolving the issue.

Thank you all for your excellent advice

Does the runout direction move when you rotate the centre 180deg?

Emgee, You are right that no adjustment should be required, but it does not alter the fact that lathes especially the lighter lathes that we tend to use do alter and move over time and that some adjustment might be required. My point was do not expect it to be right.

A simple test. Fit a centre in the headstock taper and the tailstock taper and bring them together trapping a razor blade between the points.

My C3 mini-lathe actually passed this test quite nicely.

* Danny M *

Edited By Danny M2Z on 19/08/2020 11:28:33

How did you determine your dead centres have run out? And how much?