Thanks for staying with us Fitch. Your point about getting 2 centerlines aligned is exactly why it takes hours and hours to align the tailstock. Aligning 2 points, or a point and a line, isn't that hard to do. With the precision bar between the chuck and live center, I had to align with the quill all the way in (just short of ejecting the #3 morse taper shank). Then unlock the tailstock and push it back with the handwheel until the quill ran out of threads and stopped feeding, lock it down and check it again to see how much it drifted off. Adjust and check (by traveling carriage-mounted indicators back and forth on top and on the side of the bar, crank the quill in and out, slide the tailstock back and forth, lock and unlock, etc. Unclamped, my quill sits .002" high. Clamped hard, it's .0005" high and level. As I said, I'm not that good, so I live with it There may be a faster or better way, but I don't know it. The results are worth it though. The first thing I noticed was that when center-drilling, the point was dead still and not trying to circle. Second was that a regular drill point didn't circle or wobble as it fed in. Dead still is good on drills, and really really good on reamers.
Yeah, I can't see how the RockJag holder can float radially, but he may have a small flat in the bottom of the socket. That would do it. The socket is oversize enough to allow a fair amount of axial angularity, and he did say it would float radially too, but not how much. In my case, the tailstock is good enough that it doesn't need much, if any, float and his pusher setup will allow me to feel the reamer torque load, release it when needed, and pull the reamer out easily for cleaning between cuts. I'm looking forward to trying it.
Point taken on the float of the Clymer / Manson, etc, hard mounted floating reamer holders. They do have a lot of radial float by design, but I don't think they allow much, if any, axial angularity. Also, the Clymer holder unfortunately will try to center itself under torque load. I think Mr. Manson's holder truly free-floats, but I haven't used one, so I can't verify that.
Fitch, I'm going to try your procedure of releasing the handle and killing the lathe when stopping a cut. I have gotten a ring in a chamber a couple of times for no obvious reason. Could be a chip getting under a reamer cutting edge when I first retract the reamer. I haven't been killing the lathe to pull the reamer out. I don't know if that's the reason, but it sure makes sense.
Bigngreen, aligning the tailstock is slow, but I'm going to vote for it one last time.
Enjoy, Tom
