You can read how ksouers checked and later (page 2) corrected his spindle alignment
in this
thread on the HMEM forum. Witness marks were a good idea.
Earl Hackett also made a tutorial discussing his method for
spindle/column alignment similar to what I suggested in the linked thread except
he laid the column on the table.
rudydubya expanded on that and made a
nice tutorial with good pics, check it out.
Good Luck, Hoss