Hi Tezza, you're correct there,
in theory, that's what should happen, but as you will see, in practice, you will do the fine tuning, and all is fine.....paper is cutting nicely from one end to the other, so you then tighten the locking nuts.....
All of a sudden, the reel is too tight on the bottom blade!
So you back off the locking nuts and start again!! It takes a bit of practice, but you can get it right.
That is assuming that the reel blades have been ground 'square' (ie.) the reel is placed correctly in the lathe and is spinning; and the rotating grind stone is perfectly square to it, (and in itself exactly square); as the stone moves across the face, each blade should be exactly the same height and perfectly flat (from left to right....The thing to remember here, is that the reel is a helix spiral (ie.) the blade curves around the spiral.
If for any reason the reel is not 'square'to itself or all of the blades are not exactly the same height,
NO fine tuning adjustments will correct the problem.
This is what I feel has happened in Steve's case, the reel has been ground slightly "off square".
The solution; re-grind the reel and lap it to the bottom blade.
