Emco Maximatt 2 headstock help

I have been talking to a fellow who owns an Emco Maximatt 2 lathe. He had some bad gears in the headstock and removed the heastock off the bed. He said when he took it apart there were some shims under the head laying on the bed. He said they looked original. He said they got lost. He assembled it with out the shims and it cuts a taper. He said he has the bed dead level from headstock to tailstock and no twist using a precision level. I am going over tomorrow and see if I can help him. He said in his parts manual it shows shims. Has anyone had a headstock off a Emco? I am bringing some plastic shim with and will do the 2 collar test and shim the head so it removes the taper when he cuts the shaft. I am wondering if anyone has seen or done this before? If I was able to, I would scrape the headstock, but don't have the time. Thanks

Sure seems odd unless they expect some twist in the bed.. the last check is how much shims might make it straight... figuring straight and height error correction with shimming.

I have my Starrett 199 level with and will check the best twist and get it perfect then I'm going to turn a piece of aluminum the same size as the TS quill first and compare that to the TS height..I do that all the time, Then once I establish that I am going to turn the 2 collar test a bit different then usual. He said it now turns a taper. i am going to turn the collars to the same size, more off the bigger side. Once I do that I am going to mount a mag base on the cross-slide and indicate the side of both collars and there will be error. Then I will loosen the head and shim it straight. I have some assorted .00005" shim and up to ,030" of Artus plastic shim. on opposite sides of the /\, front and back . Then indicate the bar and see if it is zero, repeat if needed. Hopefully the taper isn't to bad. I'll try to take some photo's to post here.

It would be interesting to know how much taper he was finding.
A few thousandths would be worth chasing, but a couple of tenths could be very hard to find. For one instance building a spindle with the acentric marks opposite or low-grade bearings can make a wobble in the spindle to cause what seems like a wondering few tenths or microns problem that is a bugger to remedy or even diagnose.

A taper problem can seem to change with running large and small diameter parts if the machine problem is changing height of the grinding wheel or tool bit from one long travel position to the other, small diameter parts will often exhibit more taper.

Good rule measure, map, and note all shims because they like/love to get lost or mixed up.

Yes, I am saying this stuff for newbies because Richard knows way more than I on such things.

I went over to look at the lathe today and repaired it so the machine ran with-in .0002" in 3 inches. Fortunately he is only making a 1/16" wide x 3/8" OD and a 1/16 ID hole bushing he uses for his world famous jack knifes. He said he never uses the tailstock to center to center and just drills holes. He said the small center drill wobbled when he drilled with it. He is Tony Baker and he is in Claremore Oklahoma. He just came home from a trade show in Paris France. I started by using a level to work on the bed twist. I was disappointed the bed was worn like all lathes under the chuck inside saddle V way.

The lathe has sets on 4 leveling screws and 2 weren't touching. He said he seldom does shafts longer then 3" long. The bed was worn .004" on the V. I got the twist on the worn area down to .001" in 8" not caring for the rest of the bed. I then turned down a brass shaft that was approx 5" long chucked in a 3 jaw chuck. I mic'ed the TS quill and tuned the brass shaft to the TS quill size approx 1/4" long, ran the TS up to the end of the shaft and the headstock was .012 low. I mentioned yesterday he lost the factory shims, so I cut some Artus plastic shim and put .010 under the headstock, the shim stock assortment had .0125" under the head and it indicated .0005" high and that was acceptable for him. T

he head sets on 2 flats and on the front side there is an independent /\ and I ended up putting a .008 on one side of the /\ to straighten the .004" taper in his turning 3" long from the chuck and it mic'ed with only a .0002" taper. He was tickled as he had 3 other "journeymen machinists" try to fix it. I spent 4 hours there. He was happy. I told him if he ever wants to cut long shafts, he needs to buy a new lathe. He bought me $40.00 gas and his wife made lunch. Better then sitting in the hotel room on a Sunday. This coming week I am going to be doing some machine maintenance at J&S Machine in Nowata OK. where last week I taught a scraping class. I'll add some pictures tomorrow. Rich

Tony Baker Knives are absolutely beautiful,
If I have any difficulty getting a center drill hole dead on I scalp the location with a tool bit to get dead on to whatever tolerance my chuck or collet can center.

Sounds like a success/job well one.. Good thread. Likely the needed shim amount changed from when the lathe was new....so ending better than just replacing the original shims.

Here is what he wrote on Facebook :-) ttps://www.facebook.com/groups/842518889605997/posts/1464568547401025/?notif_id=1668476767305809&notif_t=group_post_mention&ref=notif