Hi Mike ,

(1) Make sure your centres and taper sockets are in good order and then mount a piece of plain round bar between centres . Clean up with a couple of cuts and then carefully take a very fine cut with a back pass at unaltered setting .

Measure each end of bar . If tailstock aligned properly bar will be parallel , if not aligned difference in diameters wll show you the error . Adjust and take another cut etc .until best alignment achieved . Small bonus is that when your bar is finally parallel you have a reuseable test bar for next time .

(2) Make yourself a backwards test bar . Taper shank and parallel extension and which goes in tailstock . Clock back and forth and front and back and you wil immediately see any misalignment (and incidentaly any skew) . Adjust etc . Again test bar is reusable .

(3) Before doing any of above make sure that reamer is not simply crooked in the tailstock chuck – old and cheap chucks are prone to misaligment in gripping .

Regards ,

Michael Wiliams .

Edited By MICHAEL WILLIAMS on 30/04/2012 09:13:25