deere_x475guy
Well-Known Member
7 years ago I bought a machinist level from WT tool. I used it to level my lathe and put it away. Then about a year later I took it over to a friends house to check his lathe. It was then I realized that I never calibrated the darn thing.
Oh well no problem I say...I will just calibrate it first and later I will check my lathe again. We went through the calibration process and noticed it didn't seem as stable as we thought it should be.
Well about 6 months later I got around to trying to adjust my lathe again....it was then I discovered there wasn't any liquid in it and the box had moisture in it. Upon taking it apart I discovered the correct way to adjust it. I had been turning the screw that goes though the body before. In if it had been assembled correctly I would never have been able to turn the screw. A round nut had been floating around inside and when I tuned the screw to adjust it the nut was against the vial and it broke.
Since then I had been trying to locate a new vial for it but was not successful. Then a few weeks ago I notice a thread that John had posted about fixing his level and having to buy several vials to get one. I emailed John and asked if I could by one from him. John told me not to worry about a change and sent one to me several weeks ago. It arrived today and here are some shots of what I did to get it to work.
John had it well package and marked fragile. It was also in another package.
I used hot glue to hold it in place it just fit.
I now have it properly calibrated
I checked my lathe....
Here is the tailstock end
Here is the headstock...these points are 40" apart...I think this is good enough...
Thanks again John!!!....
Oh well no problem I say...I will just calibrate it first and later I will check my lathe again. We went through the calibration process and noticed it didn't seem as stable as we thought it should be.
Well about 6 months later I got around to trying to adjust my lathe again....it was then I discovered there wasn't any liquid in it and the box had moisture in it. Upon taking it apart I discovered the correct way to adjust it. I had been turning the screw that goes though the body before. In if it had been assembled correctly I would never have been able to turn the screw. A round nut had been floating around inside and when I tuned the screw to adjust it the nut was against the vial and it broke.
Since then I had been trying to locate a new vial for it but was not successful. Then a few weeks ago I notice a thread that John had posted about fixing his level and having to buy several vials to get one. I emailed John and asked if I could by one from him. John told me not to worry about a change and sent one to me several weeks ago. It arrived today and here are some shots of what I did to get it to work.
John had it well package and marked fragile. It was also in another package.
I used hot glue to hold it in place it just fit.
I now have it properly calibrated
I checked my lathe....
Here is the tailstock end
Here is the headstock...these points are 40" apart...I think this is good enough...
Thanks again John!!!....