Look at the underside of the bed; there are sometimes globs of paint that have to be removed to provide a clean path for the slide plates to travel. If that's not a problem, the easy way to adjust the slide plates is with the lathe off its base, turned upside down! Personally, I don't think the clamp/jack screw arrangement scales down well from larger machines - I used shims & eliminated the jack screws.
If you want to keep the clamp/jack screw arrangement, use the clamp screws to make the carriage slightly stiff to slide. Then, use the jack screws to slightly free it up. You'll need to be careful; the slide plates are brittle, too much jack screw pressure can fracture them. (That's why I went with shims.) The theory is that the jack screws provide enough force to keep both sets of screws from vibrating loose.
Check your tool height; a tool that's a little high will chatter.
Roy
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--- In 7x12minilathe@..., "Bill" wrote:
Hi all I am a newbie , I am having difficulty with chatter even on light cuts. I am trying the tuning method explained in mini-lathe .com. I got a micro mark 7x16 lathe I have done a few light turning with it and went pretty well then I had to do a taper and thats when the problem began. I am having trouble adjusting the saddle mostly when I follow the instructions if I tighten the setscrews the saddle is very hard to move so obviously more than finger tight is too much does that make sense? Also the 1 mil it says to attain gap between ways and saddle would also make the saddle hard to move. I must be doing something wrong?
Bill
