Measurement of lathe Z-slide straightness and parallelism using a flat land

A method is described to measure the straightness of travel of the carriage of a single-point diamond turning machine. The method also measures the slide parallelism to the workhead spindle. A cylindrical artifact was produced on the lathe and used as a straightedge. A flat land was cut in the artifact that was parallel to the workhead axis of rotation. The flat land was measured with a LVDT indicator. The method was demonstrated on a Moore Special Tool Co. M18 Aspheric Generator. The quality of measurements achieved were better than 0.1 μm.