9 x 20 lathe feed prolom

Little Dave, if I may, I have a 9x20 and while no expert I've been using it and fixing it for a while. You being around machine tools before you might be used to more heavy duty lathes and the 9x20 isn't. There are a lot of shortcomings and just weirdness like if you look at the cross dial it says each mark is .002. So if you take a .050 cut by the dial you are really taking a .100 cut. A .050" is more than I could take without a lot of chatter and mayhem until i did some work on the cross slide and align the head to the ways. The other weirdness is you have to do some out of the box tinkering to really get it to do a fine cut. If you are using it the way it comes even on the lowest setting of the quick change box it's still too fast to do a real fine cut. I also had to replace the halfnut on mine as it was worn from not being adjusted correctly. That took some modification to get it to fully engage properly.
My depth of cut was a half turn on the cross slide .030 depth equals .060 diameter. I'll take your advice and cut it in half to 1/4 turn on the dial.
 
Another thing that might help...if you haven't upgraded your compound base to the four bolt you might have had flex that caused your tool to dig in. I built a four bolt base for my 9x20 and it really made a lot of difference. It eliminated nearly all the flex when turning and parting off is a breeze now.
 
Another thing that might help...if you haven't upgraded your compound base to the four bolt you might have had flex that caused your tool to dig in. I built a four bolt base for my 9x20 and it really made a lot of difference. It eliminated nearly all the flex when turning and parting off is a breeze now.
 
Another thing that might help...if you haven't upgraded your compound base to the four bolt you might have had flex that caused your tool to dig in. I built a four bolt base for my 9x20 and it really made a lot of difference. It eliminated nearly all the flex when turning and parting off is a breeze now.
Already done
 
I found so many goofy things wrong with mine. Like when I went to move QCTP I realized he'd put it in the wrong hole in the slide. There are two holes for the dowel pin to go in and between the two is a semi hole that is where the screw for the cross slide nut is. He had it jammed in there so it wasn't seated correctly, d'oh! The cross slide dovetails were a mess from the factory. There was no way to adjust the gib correctly without it binding on the ends and being totally loose in another spot. Even my noob totally green attempt at scraping them made a world of difference.

I don't have the chatter and mayhem now because the the gib can be adjusted properly. I see where a lot of guys have said that cross slide housing broke and they made a new one. I'm wondering how many had poorly fitted cross slide dovetails/gibs? Along with that silly tiny cross slide handle its hard to get a good feel for what's going on. I would have preferred to buy a machine I didn't have spend so much time tinkering with but I have learned a lot.
 
have both 9x20 and G0602

about 8 years old

They are cheap chinese laths

have four bolt compound mount, did not like it

always loosening those 4 nuts to move it...

use clamps on 9x20 compond mount, as there are 2 holes on cross slide

pin underneath compound, can move closer to chuck

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Charl
 
New to hobby machinist first post. I have a Harbor Freight Central Machinery 9 x 20 lathe. But I have trouble with the feed on the lathe. I have stripped the teeth of the 42 tooth worm gears. This is the gear that mates to the gear on the lead screw. Has anyone else had this problem.? Any suggestions on how to fix it so it does not happen a third time. Is there a way to make the lead screw more rigid in the apron?
I have the same problem. the worm gear binds up. Think it's worn out. Mine is a JET version of the same 9 X 20 lathe sold by HFT, Grizzly, and others (BD 920N).

Have you found a FIX?
 
What are some of the causes and fixes for a worm gear binding up on the 9X20 lathe carriage feed?

I hit a hard stop when I couldn't stop the feed and it hit my carriage stop. Worked for a while after, but now binds up and kicks out the gears driving the lead screw.
 
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