. What's the saying...never look a gift horse in the mouth
How did you go about your aligning? It's better to align the headstock with the ways first then do the 2 collar test to align the tailstock.
How did you go about your aligning? It's better to align the headstock with the ways first then do the 2 collar test to align the tailstock.
Headstock sits on the ways, the only way it can be 'adjusted' is by scraping. My tailstock was worn on the base, so slideway, scraped that in, so the sole plate was parallel to the bed, I then line bored and sleeved it.
To add, if the bed requires regrinding, it will not effect the alinement with the headstock as setup by the factory
Is it tight on the vee ways or have clearance? Many lathes have the vee cut in the headstock base but it's non-locating and has clearance to allow for adjustment.
Tight, no adjustment, bolted straight to the bed.
They must be confident in their line boring setup then. As you say if it needs adjusting then it would have to be scraped but if it passed inspection out of the factory it must have been right when new. You should still check the alignment anyway as it might identify a twist in the bed. A Precision level would also identify this but the whole point is that until it's verified the test above will only let you set the tailstock for accurate between-centres turning, you might still get a taper turning in the chuck or collet.