Tailstock alignment.

[tonyfoale]

I had a guy come in and scrape the ways on one my old lathes. ...equipment that I didn't own for the task

My lathe had hardened ways with little use so previous scraping wasn't the culprit for my low tailstock. It had to have come out of the factory like it or someone had changed the tailstock at some stage but it gives every sign of being original. I wouldn't have been too happy with the idea of shimming if I was in the habit of having to offset it, but once aligned it stays where it is. Although I check it again before anything critical.