Got the lathe situated, and once I get back after the weekend, will begin the tedious 'alignment' phase. Anyone have a clue as to how we're supposed to level a lathe with a single row of four bolts supporting it? I guess you'd want to shim to either side of the feet of the casting, but that seems like you'd be putting a lot of pressure (once bolted up) on a small area of not too sturdy material. The stand itself seems flexible enough that shimming it's four corners wouldn't get you very far.
Beneath the stand feet I placed two sections of rubber horse-stall matt, and had enough left for an anti-fatigue matt and padded grippy surface for the top of the head stock. Power cord is chewed up, but no conductors exposed, so it powered up just find and turns how you'd expect. One wrinkle that's weird is the on switch has a position for milling...with the Sieg milling attachment that bolts onto the back of the bed. The machine is definitely of Sieg origin, licensed or otherwise. The speed readout is not very good, but it's at least both very small and very simple; the spindle is drilled for a pressed-in magnet, and a very cheap Hall effect sensor detects it. The readout updates once a second or so, but varies 50-90rpm as the machine idles (seemingly smoothly) when first turned on. Upon pressing the speed up/down buttons, the delay is in the multiple seconds, and along with the aforementioned inaccuracy, makes it hard to tell if the lathe is actually responding. It doesn't help that the motor and gearbox are practically silent, lol. The shaft magnet is probably fine, and the sensor likely becomes more accurate as the magnet moves faster, and the whole sensor/display unit is about the size of a pack of ciggies and bolted to the casting. If any component should become broken or too irritating, it would be simple enough to rig up a cheap ebay RPM sensor of better quality.
I'm still taking stock of what all I'm missing; I don't think it's too much stuff, and not anything super important (worst is one of the extra 3 jaw jaws is missing). The QCTP I ordered as well as the thread dials are not shipping with these machines, they are coming later, apparently. Bit of a let down there, but I will be plenty entertained running old HSS stubs out of the turret post while I learn. Machine was quite dirty, which may be due to the damaged crate, although the machine was wrapped in plastic. No grit anywhere as best I can tell, which is the important part, though.
"Mine didn't have any Styrofoam blocks in the crate."
That's not Styrofoam hanging out the end, that's the headstock door... hanging on by a thread, too, as every single #10 screw holding the various parts of the headstock panels together had nearly shaken themselves free of the machine. I honestly can't explain that, other than the palletizing arrangement must not have isolated the machine from vibration very well. Incidentally, I will soon be modifying the door. In order to swing it open, its rear corner sticks a good three inches past the splash guard, and since I don't have that much room to spare (1 car garage with large coupe) I will cut the corner down into a 45degree angle so I can open the door enough to reach the change gear without hitting the wall.
TCB