Dead Centre

Pictured is my nice shiny new dead-centre (size MT1) for my Dad's old lathe. Having got the tailstock aligned, I was keen to see if the thing was true in the Z-axis, as the only option of righting any problem here is shimming the headstock, not a job for the faint-hearted in my book: as it turned out, the thing is as close as it could be or that I could ever make it, so that's a relief.

I was telling Joe of the purchase in the pub this afternoon: the stupidly low price of this was noted: back in the days when such stuff came out of our own factories, a dead centre would not have been a cheap purchase, and to be honest, if you go for something with a bit more pedigree, you can still drop quite a lot of cash for one. Mine was pretty budget, but bought from an outfit in Hockley, Birmingham: a bit of ex-pat loyalty to the place of my birth, off the net. China was my first thought in terms of it's probable origin, and as it turned out I was bang on.

Given the eighty-plus year age of the lathe and its very nature as a hobbyist's machine, spending too much more than I did would probably show poor returns. But I can't escape the irony of receiving a tool made in China from a company based in Birmingham: the erstwhile engineering and manufacturing epicentre of the world when Dad's lathe first turned. It's odd how the world turns, so to speak... BTW, I'm not doing the guys at Rotagrip Ltd. down: give them your business, should you need it, at Rotagrip, via eBay: support small business wherever you are and whatever your needs, where possible - you know it makes sense!