"Has that razor blade been calibrated recently?" I bet ol' mate is thinking something along those lines lol. Nice one Rob! Learnt something new again 👍

One of the great things about doing this kind of work is that no matter how many years you have been at it you can still learn something. I have never seen anyone check alignment like that before. I have laid my 6 inch scale on a round part and used the tip of the drill to tell me if I am on center and I have used my scale between a cutting tool and something round in the chuck to see if I am on center but I had never thought of checking tail stock alignment the way you did. Thanks!

Simple but effective. Great tip, Rob!

Your tips are really helpful, thanks Rob! Those double edged razors are super handy for all sorts of things in the shop. I like how they flex to conform to a surface better than a single edged blade.

Glad to hear all is well

Hi Rob , I wish i had a dollar for every time i have read about or watched a video of how to get the tailstock perfectly aligned and all the stuffing around associated with the techniques they showed . I have seen guys using indicators mounted to the chuck to clock the tailstock barrel , turning bits of bar between centres and all sorts of wiz bang ideas and all of them are overkill! . When i rebuild a lathe i set up the headstock using a precision test bar as this is important i then shove a dead centre in the tailstock and lightly grip the end of this in the chuck and tighten the tailstock adjusting bolts and that is that - for 90% of the work i do with the tailstock ( mostly drilling ) it is good enough . If i do turn between centres i then do adjustments as needed using the workpiece as a guide and when it is all done i use the same method you have just shown to check where everything is sitting and adjust as needed . Lathe beds ( hobby ) are never perfectly straight or unworn so what you set at the chuck will differ to what you get at the other end of the bed and it doesn’t take much twist to knock your tailstock out of perfect alignment - how do they know if the ways where the tailstock is running are truly collinear with the ways where the bed runs ? I learned this running cylindrical grinders and you didn’t have time to stuff around getting back to parallel after grinding a taper - use the scale on the end of the table to get a base zero then touch of at each end of the workpiece and use the feed dial to tell you how far off you are and adjust accordingly. That’s what i like - nice and simple , get it done and get on with the job !

Another great tip Rob. Cheers, Charlie

Great video again. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and tips!!!

Try this with your lathe and see how you get on. NOTE: I always align the tailstock by tramming an indicator along a test bar and then checking any job with a micrometer in several places. The razor blade test is a good reference/quick indicator, but doesn't take into account any twist in the bed or ways. It's quite possible that the tailstock may be off centre at maximum distance between centers if the bed is not perfectly true. Cheers Rob

Great vid of a simple, super useful trick! Thanks for teaching this old dog a new trick!

Wow what alignment, fantastic. I really need to to that too. Never thought about doing that. So simple and neat. Thank you

G'day Rob. Thanks for another handy tip.

Excellent tip! Thanks!

Rob, so yes he WAS talking out of his arse! Loved the demmo with the razor blade mate!

Thanks for that Robbie, I’m fairly new to lathes and I didn’t know about this, I’m off to check mine.Cheers.

Hi Rob, great demo of the same quick and dirty method I use often to check things are in alignment. I think a lot of the issue here is camera angles, I have watched lots of my content back during editing and seen stuff that I didn't see live on the machine and that was not born out in the dimensional results. This is the issue often created when watching 3d stuff on 2d screen with parallax error and fish eye thrown in for good measure. Cheers, Jon

nicely shown Rob, lovely clear filming, ATB, Cliff

Great trick Rob! I use a similar method for setting/checking centre of a tool, never thought about trying it in the tailstock. Going to keep that method in the tool box for the future :)

Fantastic tip!

Life is good, do as you do, and have a good time.

Hi Rob, Good video... Quite hard to argue with that evidence, although some will I am sure. Have a good week. Paul,,

In the past I was stupid enough to adjust the left-right of my tailstock by turning a round bar over and over. The razor blade trick is way easier *and* faster - thanks for demonstrating!

Great video!

Excellent, and handy also as I shave with a double edge razor. I'll try it out on my Jet 13x40. Thanks! From Montana

Good enough for me and the crap I make. Good tip

G'day Rob good to see you again well you proved a lot in this video one that your lathe is in perfect alignment and the other is blowing the smoke out his arse! Keep safe and well mate. PS how's the old blue tongue is he still around the shed? Regards John

All ways used the "razor" technique to find tool centre hight. I use a 6" rule.

My lathe needs the moon to be in line with the Sun to get that accuracy. Use a smaller drill than stated, to get correct size. Going out now to shim some play out on the crosslide/ bed. Also put a lock on the bed.

Thanks

I prefer to use indicator attached to the backplate or to lathe chuck and to rotate it around tailstock dead center.

tolerance for expensive good drill bits is only .005 - .012 , we always use a center drill

Hi Rod thanks for your teaching videos ,very helpful. I'm in Adelaide to but looking for some brass brazing rods thinner then 2 mm and a small amount for small jobs as i have been watching your brazing videos where would you suggests to go in Adelaide.

There is a good chance if someone saw a drill bit jump a bit as it was first engaging the work, the drill bit itself wasn't perfectly straight to start with or the drill chuck is just a bit off. I see mine do that quite often on my lathe, but the tailstock is dead nuts on with the headstock spindle. I don't see my center drills do that, so I'd be more inclined to think it is the cheap jobber drill bits I use. Maybe that was what he was seeing?

Hi Rob. I hoped you mic'd that razor blade up before you used it to ensure that it was uniformally flat 😂😂😂 Cheers, Alan.

I went back and looked at the previous video and yes that spot drill did wander around but I think I spotted the reason for it. Rob did not face the end of the brass by the look of it. He cut the brass on the bandsaw, then put in collet and threaded it . It looks as if there is a cut surface not faced as he spot drills it I could be wrong and if I am correct that would be the reason why the 2mm spot drill wandered. Rob it's down to you to tell us if you did or didn't face the brass before spot drilling the work !

I think it's more likely a drill is not true or the face of the work than the alignment of your lathe... I know what the bloke is saying but it can be an artifact of having a camera mounted somewhere you could get some vibration or strobing effect from lighting flicker etc. that gives that apparent movement of a drill bit. Surely the heavy shaft of a centre drill is to give a rigid and true alignment for the relatively small tip section - compared to the small shaft diameter of a small drill bit and the likelyhood quite a few of those cheap small bits are not actually straight on close inspection even from the packet...

Gday Rob, I am a new subscriber not at all negative. I too saw the drill jump/climb. I just went back and watch your collet video again, 15:58 and for the next 10 sec as you repeatedly touched the drill to the brass rod the drill looked to jump a little. I has seen similar "jumps" on other youtube lathe videos. Obviously your tailstock alignment is perfect, another commentor says the drill maybe bent, that also is easy to check (roll it on a flat surface). What gets me, if it were a random equip error the drill would jump in random directions at each instant, but they always seen to jump up vertically. So maybe it is a camera parallax/trick or similar. Keep up the good work Has the small sumore arrived? Greg

G’day Rob. Looking sharp there mate. Poor comments make for a good tips video, always look for a positive. Cheers Peter

Well I am only a neophyte or tyro when it comes to metal work. But I sometime think my drills are jumping to center when I drill on the lathe. BUT ... As long as it runs true while I am making the hole then there is nor worry to me. It doesn't seem to affect my projects at all. I think another way that you can prove your tailstock base is not worn dropping the quill is to mount a piece of know good round stock between centers and run a clock along the top of the bar with the carriage. Good tip and demonstration Rob. Now as far as blowing smoke out of my ass, well I had this Mexican dish one time ........ Joe

What if your tailstock is lower then the spindle? How do you adjust that?

Sometimes I notice things can look a bit out of line due to the camera being used. I have never seen the razor blade test so I'm off out to my workshop to check my own tailstock.. Cheers!

If the length of the bed was out by a mm or two, at the end, the centres would still meet in the centre, and the razor blade would still be vertical… I have a problem with my lathe in that when I turn a 25mm x 300mm shaft (without using a centre), it is smaller at the end and larger at the chuck end… this means that the end bedway is not perfectly aligned with the chuck… so I need to find a way to bring the end of the bedway closer to the operators side… I haven’t worked out how to do that yet…

What if the bed is twisted ?

The smoke coming from his ass must be messing with his eyesight, looks dead nuts to me. Great info.

As we say here in America, it's the angle of the dangle, that will get you. wink, wink. Good stuff to know. Thanks for sharing the video, and the bird sounds. Now, go get a cold one, you earned it.

Hah. there's loads of people who'll happily tell you your equipment's all wankered. Or even that your filming's just plain shit. Your tailstock is fine, and there's loads of things that'll make a centre drill (or any other drill) jump a tiny amount Good demonstration of the technique, though. 👍

Aren't armchair critics something else? They know so much it's nearly impossible to keep up with them. It must be that brain growing diet of Cheetos and Mountain Dew consumed in Mom's basement at 35 years of age..... Yes sir, those mighty and impressive armchair geniuses are truly a breed apart! Unmarried, jobless, and camping out in Mommy's basement. Truly impressive pillars of erudition and wisdom inspired and fueled by the aforementioned nerd diet. Watch those Cheetos crumbs while you're spitting out curse words at the screen. Too bad we can't collect em all in one place and have that Brain Trust replace everyone's governments. That'd be spectacular and good for investors in Cheetos n Mountain Dew :)