# Lathe vibration



## Tones1 (Oct 4, 2018)

First want to say hi. Just joined here and hoping to be a regular around here. I just bought my first lathe and am looking for a little help with something. My lathe has a vibration and I'm thinking a bad bearing. Its a used Rikon mini. Anyway it seems to run smooth through all speeds until I have wood on the lathe that I'm turning. I realize there will be vibration until I have it turned and balanced. The problem is the vibration never goes away. So one side of my piece my tools are slightly skipping if that makes sense. Also to verify I wetted the wood to sand. I left it damp and sanded and there were spot the sandpaper weren't hitting. So the bearing on headstock spindle slides left to right fairly easy also causing the spindle to drift left to right if I don't have the tailstock in place. I tried to shack the spindle to see if I could feel any play but if I do it is very little. Any ideas? Kind of frustrating. Thank you


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Difficult to say without being there. There are a number of things that might cause your problem. If you are turning the wood too slow it can cause the spindle to be out of round which in turn causes vibration. If the wood isn't tight enough between centers the turning center could move. If you are turning between centers there could be some looseness in the spur center. If you are using a faceplate the wood might slip a little. The bearings you describe could be bad. If the bearings are the problem you should be able to grab the spur center and wiggle it. If there isn't enough slack to wiggle it there shouldn't be enough play to show up on the turning.


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## Gary Beasley (Jan 21, 2009)

Your gouge may be bouncing off the end grain and causing the irregularities. You also need to check the alignment between the headstock and tailstock. Centers in both when slid together should come really close to touching point to point. Have you tried a straight grained well centered spindle turning to see if the vibration persists?


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## Alchymist (Jan 2, 2011)

Tones1 said:


> First want to say hi. Just joined here and hoping to be a regular around here. I just bought my first lathe and am looking for a little help with something. My lathe has a vibration and I'm thinking a bad bearing. Its a used Rikon mini. Anyway it seems to run smooth through all speeds until I have wood on the lathe that I'm turning. I realize there will be vibration until I have it turned and balanced. The problem is the vibration never goes away. So one side of my piece my tools are slightly skipping if that makes sense. Also to verify I wetted the wood to sand. I left it damp and sanded and there were spot the sandpaper weren't hitting. So the bearing on headstock spindle slides left to right fairly easy also causing the spindle to drift left to right if I don't have the tailstock in place. I tried to shack the spindle to see if I could feel any play but if I do it is very little. Any ideas? Kind of frustrating. Thank you


Sounds like you haven't turned the piece all the way down to where it's round. If that's the case, keep turning until the tool is cutting all the way around the piece. If the vibration stops, all is good. If you can't do this, something else is amiss.


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## Tones1 (Oct 4, 2018)

Thanks all for the help and advise. The piece was turned to round. but if you could imagine touching a pencil to the piece while spinning it would miss at different places because of the vibration.


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## bornleader (Mar 18, 2014)

Check to see if the lathe bed is level north/south and east/west. 

Put a pointed spur / live center in head / tail stock and see if the points meet perfectly. 

Dave


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## Alchymist (Jan 2, 2011)

bornleader said:


> Check to see if the lathe bed is level north/south and east/west.
> 
> Put a pointed spur / live center in head / tail stock and see if the points meet perfectly.
> 
> Dave



Lathe bed does not need to be level as you described; it only needs to be setting on a flat surface. A machinist lathe if not flat will not turn out of round, but will turn a taper, and we are talking a thousandth or two. Tones1's lathe would have to have warped badly to notice it. 



One other thing about lathes and vibration - if it's sitting on a flexible surface, it will vibrate. Some turners even put a couple of bags of sand on a bottom shelf to dampen vibrations.


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## Maylar (Sep 3, 2013)

Once the piece is turned round there shouldn't be any vibration, except maybe from the motor. What you're describing sounds like the headstock spindle is wobbling. Could it be bent?
Are you turning a spindle between centers or are you doing faceplate turning?


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## Catpower (Jan 11, 2016)

It sounds like a bad case of chatter, how sharp are your cutting tools?
Dull tools will cause some pretty bad chatter. Chatter is caused by the wood or tool flexing while turning. It could be bad bearings but in honesty I have never seen a wood working tool wear out it's bearings, they usually use some pretty beefy bearings. as mentioned before with the lathe off push and pull on the spindle to see if it gives any, bad bearings will cause movement


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## Tones1 (Oct 4, 2018)

I may have found the problem or if not I at least fixed part of the problem. The lathe I bought hasn’t been used in several years. A few days after using I wanted to remove the spur center to use a different chuck. The spur center was in so tight that I had to hit the push rod with a hammer several times to remove it. In doing so it pushed the bearing on the hand turn side in somewhat collapsing a spring washer allowing the spindle to float left to right some. The bearing on the other side fits in the head stock fairly easy and doesn’t need pressed in at all. So I think to two combined caused the vibration. Today I just had some small wood in (made a turkey striker) and it ran as smooth as silk. So the jury is still out until I have some larger material like I had the other day. I know part of the problem is I also need a stronger bench. Thanks so much for all the help


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Tones1 said:


> I may have found the problem or if not I at least fixed part of the problem. The lathe I bought hasn’t been used in several years. A few days after using I wanted to remove the spur center to use a different chuck. The spur center was in so tight that I had to hit the push rod with a hammer several times to remove it. In doing so it pushed the bearing on the hand turn side in somewhat collapsing a spring washer allowing the spindle to float left to right some. The bearing on the other side fits in the head stock fairly easy and doesn’t need pressed in at all. So I think to two combined caused the vibration. Today I just had some small wood in (made a turkey striker) and it ran as smooth as silk. So the jury is still out until I have some larger material like I had the other day. I know part of the problem is I also need a stronger bench. Thanks so much for all the help


Sorry, the lathe spur being in so tight you have to knock it out is what it's suppose to do. All of us use a knock out rod for that purpose. 

The bearing is another issue. It should be pressed in to where it takes special tools to remove. You might try putting it in with some threadlock.


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## Catpower (Jan 11, 2016)

You need to be careful pounding on any machine, you can cause damage you cannot see, it the spur or the tail stock center is stuck so tight you need to beat it out, it is better to use some sort of wedge to slide between the spur and the head/tail stock, something like a ball joint removal tool for a vehicle


I had a live end get so stuck in a lathe quite a while ago that I used the big hammer to pound it loose, it ended up shearing the set screw off the hand wheel, as that is what held the quill in position


Just a little FYI


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## tewitt1949 (Nov 26, 2013)

Once the piece is turned round, it still may vibrate if there is a knot in it. The knot will be heavier throwing it out of balance.


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