Lathe tailstock alignment: dye on center?

[Ryobiguy]

I'm in the process of setting up the ancient South Bend lathe. Previously, before I took it apart and painted it, there were shims raising the tailstock, between top & bottom castings.

Without the shims, an eyeball test (yes, that bad) reveals the the tailstock axis is about .032" lower than the headstock's axis.

I found some info on alignment, mostly regarding the lateral alignment, by taking cuts (near and far to tailstock) and indicating the back side of the test bar.


But then I wondered about just getting it into the ballpark, maybe there's an easy way. If I put a dead center in the tailstock, and dyed the pointy face blue, then affixed a wire or something stiff and off center in the 4-jaw, couldn't I just carefully advance the tailstock and turn the chuck by hand to see where it removes the blue from the dead center? Hopefully it wont scratch up my cheap-o center, but it should reveal a vector of which dimensions are off alignment.

Is this a technique anyone has tried, or is it just a waste of time?

I think this is just a permutation of using chalk and a steady hand to line up work on a 4-jaw.

[BillH]

Dead center in the tailstock and a dead center in the spindle, place a 6" metal ruler between the points, quickly find out whats up.Then shim until the ruler is perfectly straight in all axis.

[malbenbut]

Put a short piece of bar in chuck machine to same dia as tailstock barrel put dial gauge on cross slide clock stub in chuck then tailstock barrel difference is thickness of shim needed
MBB

[SGW]

...or chuck an indicator in the headstock and run the point around the inside of the tailstock socket, to see what's what.

[Arcane]

Don't you have to measure your tailstock diameter, use a depth mic at half that dimension while touching the top of your nuts...or sumthing like that??

[IOWOLF]

HERE WE GO AGAIN.

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The tame Wolf !