Hi folks,
I'm concious of the chuck jaws - I think the issue is that if the chuck isn't very good the workpiece can deflect a bit and (at long stickouts) you can get uneven turning.
Because the taper appears to be completely linear though I think that's unlikely to be the case here, especially given I was only taking small cuts. I am going to re-run the test using the 4 jaw at some point before I take the head off just to be sure though.
Luckily the head on these lathes is just bolted on to a flat section of bed, so no need to rescrape anything (unless it's vertical misalignment!). I will simply put a bar in the chuck, loosen the head up, then 'push' the bar using the cross slide to make the requisite realignment, then tighten back up. Shouldn't be a big deal I don't think.
Cheers,
Rich