Headstock slop-----

Hmm, I would think that the teflon, if I understand how you are using it, would not really be able to squish out of the space. You are putting it between the bearing insert and the bearing cap?

Jon

In the bearing between the bronze bearing and the shaft. Trying to quick temporary fix a headstock bearing with 0,007 slop. A correct fix is not possible at this time.

Seems like the feeler gages from Walmart or the auto parts store go down to

You can get aluminum duct tape in the plumbing section of Home Depot. It is very thin and there are several thicknesses to choose from.

OK, its a big bronze piece, sounds much like the old Atlas. I would suspect the teflon might get chewed up pretty quick from the speed and loads placed on it. The Atlas used a bronze (or maybe brass) insert with Babbit lining. If yours is also babbited, you can try to repour it with babbit, or even use solder. It won't take much. Then, you can scrape it down with a scraping tool made out of an old triangular file with all the file teeth sanded/ground off. You apply Prusian Blue oil paint or Dykem "hi spot blue" (I prefer Canode water soluble dyes, they wash off, but are a special-order item) to the journal, assemble the bearing and then scrape a little material off where the blue dye transfers. You can get the bearing down to about zero clearance this way, then shim the cap with a couple layers of aluminum foil. You need to retry the spindle alignment checks to make sure you aren't forcing the spindle off-axis as you work.

If the bearing is just sintered bronze, then you most likely need to make new ones. Probably you won't be able to make babbit metal stick to the oil-saturated bronze.

Note that if there is any front-back wear in the bearing, then the lower part as well as the top is going to be worn, and both need to be addressed.

Jon