Reply To: Buying a lathe

[tmac1956]

Michael:

The dial indicator can be obtained pretty cheap. ENCO has them for about $25.00 including a magnetic base. You basically set up the dial perpendicular to the head stock, adjust the dial so the its touching the part that you wish test, set the dial to zero, and rotate the headstock to see what the maximum/minimum variance is – that’s called the run-out.

I hope this helps!
Tom