Hello all,
This machine is the first i have owned where metal working is concerned. My first impression on delivery of the robustness of the castings and overall weight was good. My shop is in the basement, so thank god the house is a split level with ground level access. This being said, it was half a day getting the machine into the house and in place. That was a month ago, and initial set up was fairly strait forward. I was unable to level and tram the machine right away because i did not have jacking feet on hand. I used this as my first project. The initial set came out in less than desirable condition so i made a second set that was acceptable. On install of the jacks, i was able to level and tram the machine Because i allowed the lathe to sit un-level while i made the jacks, once i leveled and took my first alignment cuts on my test piece, i discovered a .004" taper. I shimmed the bed to take out the twist which, im assuming, was introduced by not having the lathe sitting on a true surface. after two days i was able to remove all but .0002" using a 3" dia test piece with measuring surfaces spaced 4" apart. Next i proceeded to align the tail stock at .0017 over a 24 inch span. all in all, im seeing these measurements as quite good. I will work the lathe for a couple more weeks and readjust once the machine has found its set.
A couple of items i have found over this span of time being (1). I had to replace the motor start capacitor after the second weekend, which i concede, was probably my fault due to running the machine to hard.
(2) There is no power feed while running the milling attachment, which basically throws speeds and feeds out the window. (3) With the milling attachment vertical pillar placement, the cross slide range of movement is limited when the axis of the cross slide is coincident with the pillar.
Other than these issues, and with my limited experience, this lathe will work fine for my needs. I have a couple items in mind to modify the machine, but im going to stew over them for the time being before i run them across you guys.
If anyone has any advice or suggestions please feel free to post your comment here!
Thanks ahead of time and "Good Machining"
This machine is the first i have owned where metal working is concerned. My first impression on delivery of the robustness of the castings and overall weight was good. My shop is in the basement, so thank god the house is a split level with ground level access. This being said, it was half a day getting the machine into the house and in place. That was a month ago, and initial set up was fairly strait forward. I was unable to level and tram the machine right away because i did not have jacking feet on hand. I used this as my first project. The initial set came out in less than desirable condition so i made a second set that was acceptable. On install of the jacks, i was able to level and tram the machine Because i allowed the lathe to sit un-level while i made the jacks, once i leveled and took my first alignment cuts on my test piece, i discovered a .004" taper. I shimmed the bed to take out the twist which, im assuming, was introduced by not having the lathe sitting on a true surface. after two days i was able to remove all but .0002" using a 3" dia test piece with measuring surfaces spaced 4" apart. Next i proceeded to align the tail stock at .0017 over a 24 inch span. all in all, im seeing these measurements as quite good. I will work the lathe for a couple more weeks and readjust once the machine has found its set.
A couple of items i have found over this span of time being (1). I had to replace the motor start capacitor after the second weekend, which i concede, was probably my fault due to running the machine to hard.
(2) There is no power feed while running the milling attachment, which basically throws speeds and feeds out the window. (3) With the milling attachment vertical pillar placement, the cross slide range of movement is limited when the axis of the cross slide is coincident with the pillar.
Other than these issues, and with my limited experience, this lathe will work fine for my needs. I have a couple items in mind to modify the machine, but im going to stew over them for the time being before i run them across you guys.
If anyone has any advice or suggestions please feel free to post your comment here!
Thanks ahead of time and "Good Machining"