Craftex CX701 Lathe

[Drifter1885]

Howdy all, new here, and fairly new to machining. Bought a Craftex CX701 in July 2012, have barely 10 hours on it; on the weekend was getting ready to face a piece of plate for a wheel adapter, hadn't started the cut yet, when the motor pulled down like it was cutting to hard, then crunch-munch. Took the gearbox cover off, found it had broke the web inside that supports the shafts in the middle of the gearbox, trashed 3 gears, and one shaft. Thankfully, Busy Bee tools, where I bought it, is covering the parts for the repair; however, likely won't have the parts until spring. It was always stiff to move the shifters, on it, but put that down to being new and an offshore machine. In hindsight should have checked it out sooner. Has anyone here had or heard of this problem before on same or similar machines?

Thanks in advance.

Btw, great site!

Drifter1885

 

[Bill Gruby]

Could you get us a few pictures from different angles please. Maybe we can spot why it happened for you. That way when you get the parts you can modify it if necessary.

"Billy G"

 

[Drifter1885]

Sorry, read the post earlier, then promptly forgot to post pics. Now.....lets see if I can figure out how.....there looks like I succeeded in spite of myself...hew:

 

[xalky]

Yikes. Are you kidding me! You're taking this better than I would. I don't want to get you riled up, but That kind of stuff shouldn't happen to a brand new lathe. I certainly wouldn't be OK with waiting till spring to get parts. They gotta do better than that! :angry:

 

[ScrapMetal]

I don't think that casting is supposed to be busted either. Wow, what a mess. IMHO They should definitely be seeing that one back.

-Ron

 

[Drifter1885]

If you look close, that casting is AT MOST 1/16" thick where it broke. Problem with parts is they have to go back to Timbukto or wherever they build them. On the bright side (there are only 2, and they barely made muster as to being "bright sides") they are paring for the parts. Also, if I remove one gear on the drive side of the gear box, that will isolate the gearbox from the power side of the lathe; I could then still run the headstock for manual turning. Not the best situation, but can still work on some of my projects not requiring a high degree of finish.

But yes, you are right, they should replace this unit. The fellow I am dealing with doesn't know if they will replace the entire gearbox as a unit, or just the idividual parts; if individual parts, then I will be stuck with rebuilding the gearbox. And I am not holing my breath that they will pay for the parts; they can always ding me for them when they arrive. I hope not, but have been down that road before.

Thanks in advance for any help regarding what could have caused this. I cleaned the gearbox thoroughly, with bare fingers, looking for 'chunks' that might have caused this; other than a lot of black greasy muck that I assume was a moly based assembly lube, I found one very small chunk that I think came from one of the damaged gears, but not the cause of the pile-up.

Regards,
Drifter

 

[Railway Bob]

That looks to be like a defective casting. You need to have Busy Bee inspect the lathe and you should then return it to them. This piece of machinery didn't stand a chance right from the get-go.

One of the first things I did when I got my B2227L lathe was to remove the lid of the gear box. The first thing I discovered was that the gasket was blocking the oil groove on both the front, back, and right side so that it would be highly unlikely that oil splashed up onto the lid would then flow back into the bearing hole. So I got some gasket material from NAPA AutoPro and cut a new gasket. Then I splashed some oil over the gears as they were quite dry and ran the lathe with no load at slow speed with no load for about 5-10 minutes; changed to a higher gear and did the same; continually repeated the process till I had run through most of the gears. After running in the gears, I then changed the gear oil and put in some fresh stuff.

Check with Busy Bee and see what they'll do.

Bob M.

 

[Drifter1885]

So far all they have agreed to is supplying parts; which they should anyway, as the warranty is good until July 2014. My plan is to install their new parts, then take it to a "local" dealer (about an hour and a half from home) and trade it in. Had I known that dealer was there to start with, I would have bought from them in the first place. They sell "King" brand tools; anyone on here familiar with them?

Drifter

 

[genec]

It almost looks to me as if something got in the gears bent the shaft, and started the whole chain reaction.
anic: I would definitely be asking for a whole new head.

 

[xalky]

It almost looks to me as if something got in the gears bent the shaft, and started the whole chain reaction.
anic: I would definitely be asking for a whole new head.

Ditto.