Due to trying to solve a drill alignment issue with my Wabeco, I tried my drill chucks in my Emco headstock taper, which required extra long arbors in order to seat. Thanks to the members, I now know that the chucks are OK to a thou. That still left me with a new German lathe which wobbles when it drills.
I have since spent a few hours trying to identify the actual issue with my new Wabeco D4000. Having just about established that my drill chucks are good, I started to realise that it might be a problem that I have dreaded to consider, a low pointing tailstock. When I did a dti test this week, the tailstock held pins or drills, seem to be between 3 and 7 thou low.
I put in two centres and a test bar and the tailstock shows perfectly level and after a bit of adjustment, aligned front to back as well. I clocked a 6mm x 60mm bar in an Albrecht chuck, totally spot on.
I've just put in a range of drills in the tailstock drill chucks and a parallel centre in the 3 jaw. Even when I rotate everything,chuck, drills and centre, under 30 x magnification, the tip of every drill is noticably low relative to the centre point. How is this possible if it passes all the test bar evaluations?
I have to admit that the lathe still has it's metal straps on the feet which you are supposed to remove and it is just sitting on a £100 carpenter's bench. Now every lathe, Proxxon PD360, PD400, Compact 5 and Cowells, that I've owned, turned very well and accurately without bolting down. I know that accurate levelling is necessary for high accuracy work, but all my other lathes could keep everything aligned to a thou, wherever they are kept. The bench is thick Beech and is roughly level.
Should I bolt it to a bench, level it reasonably and then see what happens, or should I go back to the seller, because of the misalignment.
Many thanks for all your help, Nick.