Alignment Gizmo for your Four-Poster Bed

[John Tisdale]

I stumbled across these pics and thought I'd share - when I was building the outboard section for Planet Mesquite, I needed a way to get the spindle and live center true

• Go to a sporting goods store and buy a laser cartridge for a high-pwr rifle - any caliber works
• Measure the neck of the cartridge and buy a drill-bit same size
• Mount a scrap of thick baltic birch on a faceplate, put a drill-chuck in the tail-stock, and drill a hole
• The cartridge should friction-fit (see pic)
• Then glue two or three baltic birch square scraps together and drill a 1" hole - then drill four holes at 90-degree angles for four big screws - size so the screws can be finger turned but not sloppy - this is the "chamber"
• Glue the "chamber' on the baltic birch with the cartridge
• Don't be a dumb-ass like me and do it with a floor-flange / short nipple (see pic)
• Turn on the laser and project spot on distant wall - use adjusters to get the spot to not move as you hand-turn.
• Mount the gizmo on outboard of head-stock and turn on - it should put the spot on the point of your live-center
• If it does not, you got some work to do

Who knows - somebody out there in forum-land might want to do a four-poster bed

 

[Richard Coers]

I just bought this lathe instead;

 

[John Tisdale]

I just bought this lathe instead;

Wow - you're doing it right. Are you doing four-poster beds?
After doing my post, I googled "Four Poster Beds" - there are several out there - mostly sub $1000 - and, no doubt, mostly marginal.
There is an Amish site showing at $4K and up. I would expect a "one-off" from a skilled guy, as I assume you to be, would easily go for twice that, assuming you're showing in the right place.

 

[stu senator]

<it should put the spot on the point of your live-center>
Actually this shows that the center point is on a line intersecting the center line of the tail stock.
To insure that the center lines are parallel and concentric you should crank the center in and out as far as they go and check the spot. Moving the tail stock itself will only insure that the lines cross but should be done at each end of the attached beds.
Good technique for aligning multiple lathe ways at a distance..