Thread: Lathe Bed Theory

I use Ubeaut Traditional Wax on most of my machines, including the wood lathe bed, works like a charm.

IIRC warns against Silver Glide on the bed.

Hi to all,
I've been using Silver Glide since I first heard about it. Have never had a problem with it.
The trick is, you only use a very small amount on any Surface. A small amount on the Tip of your Finger, will nearly do the whole Bed.
The 1 thing you don't do is, to put it on the Cam Bar? under the Banjo, as then it will slip.
The Tail Stock only gets S/G on the Bedding Surfaces, but not on the Washer underneath
Hope that sets some minds at rest.
Regards,
issatree.

Originally Posted by rsser

IIRC warns against Silver Glide on the bed.

Yeah
He gave the same warning during the visit when he tuned my lathe here (at the GTG)
In fact he used WD40

Brendan,
Yes there is wear, minimal at best. What will occur is that the tail-stock will 'polish' the high spots of the machining off. In the old days of hand scraped beds. The scraping produced an more even wear surface as well as allow for lubrication to be present on the surface.
The area just under and up near the headstock gets no wear and also will in time have a build up of grime associated with wood turning such as sap etc.If you cleaned of the grime etc it will improve to some extent buy no where near as good as the rest of the bed.

Thanks Hughie; that makes sense. I will have to discard my theory about the wear contributing to mis alignment.

;

that makes sense. I will have to discard my theory about the wear contributing to mis alignment.

Well if you turn a lot and move the tail stock up and down a great deal you will wear it down. Dunno if you could get sufficient wear to make any great difference.

Been watching this Brendon some interesting replies.

Just re-read this again.

Originally Posted by brendan stemp

I'm working on a theory about the misalignment of the head and tail stocks and would like some more evidence to support this theory (or perhaps not support it).

This is what I am thinking: I have noticed two things happen over time with both my Vicmarc lathes;
1/ the tail stock seems to stick (or slide less freely) in the last 20 or so cms. of its travel towards the headstock. This is on a surface of the lathe bed the tail stock rarely travels because it so close to the head stock. Brendon whats the underside of the ways like how often do you clean that area. Over time build up of material would create a gum like surface.

2/ over time the head and tail stock alignment seems to get less accurate and the tail stock is in fact lower by .5mm. This would lead me to consider that the quality of material is to soft. A shim would/could fix it or re-grind and block fitted.

So this has got me thinking. Does the movement of the tail stock up and down the lathe bead wear the bed over a long period of time? I probably use my lathe more than most turners so I am guessing this wearing (if it is a factor) would be more evident on older lathes or lathes used regularly every day.

Any thoughts on this from others out there??

Last one any metal to metal surface will wear rub steel wool on a metal surface and of course it does its job. If your using certain finishes they could be corrosive as could sap over time.

Another possible culprit is the abrasive grit particles that have been shed during sanding and deposit along with the dust on the bed. Must admit that I don't clean the dust off the bed every time I move the banjo or tailstock. Must look at the wear pattern under my tailstock to see if there are any telltale parallel lines to indicate that this could be happening.
.

Another good point.

FWIW I've taken to putting an MDF board on the bed where most of the dust of some timbers drops. Makes it easier just to lift the board at sanding's end and brush the muck straight into the 'Big gulp'. Also stays there to catch any fling-off of CA/dust fill and later of finish.

Good thread. It reminds me of an old engineer who told me he would often get the job to mill flat the bed of metal lathes that had a some mm of wear. What most of the owners didn't realise was that there were adjusting screws built into the base of the lathes that he would access through little port holes. He would use the screws to adjust out 90% of the error then mill the bed back to perfect flatness. The old rogue thought it was great that he could charge for milling off 5mm when in fact he had only milled off 1mm.