First things first with a new lathe?

Just browsing the exploded view of an entirely different lathe made me think back to this thread......

On that Jet lathe a ball, spring and set screw went thru the front of a dial, like this:

View attachment 337463

that's from page 35 of this manual:
https://content.jettools.com/assets/manuals/321360A_man_EN.pdf

Note I am NOT saying that there are great similarities between the two lathes.
Just thought that if you end up keeping this lathe you make look under those (upside-down) decals.

-brino

Hey, I went ahead and pulled off one of the arrow decals, and sure enough there is a hole there with a 3mm set screw in it. I cranked up the lathe and tried running the set screw further in, which it went quite a ways in, but I didn't try to bottom it out in case it would just fall inside somewhere. And I also tried pulling it out flush with the edge of the control knob. Didn't make any difference. But the fact that it MOVED so far in leads me to believe that those parts my wife found laying on the bottom of the crate might actually NEED to have been placed in those set screw holes for detents, and those upside down labels were put on prematurely. Perhaps the person who did that either dropped them in the crate anyway, thinking the buyer would have to figure it out. Just speculating, of course. But that set screw sure did feel like it was there for a purpose other than holding that control knob onto something.

I sent the pics to the seller to see if he can talk to some tech about this and come up with an answer. A darn exploded view parts diagram sure would be handy!!
 

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Your tailstock should be centered when the centers are aligned. Sounds like this machine is pretty much scrap metal. If they can ship you a new bed it might be worth about 1/4 what you paid. We expect these things to be “kits” but yours is much worse than most from your description.

Full refund is in order here.

John
 
Your tailstock should be centered when the centers are aligned. Sounds like this machine is pretty much scrap metal. If they can ship you a new bed it might be worth about 1/4 what you paid. We expect these things to be “kits” but yours is much worse than most from your description.

Full refund is in order here.

John

I see...

So what conditions would cause the tailstock to have to be shifted over like it is on this machine?
 
Tweaked bed

Hmm, then perhaps a new bed might solve more than one problem?

BTW, I put a square on the back section of the ways (am I using the correct terminology?) and I noticed that the tailstock is not square with the ways. Looking from the direction of the perspective of the photo I provided, it is leaning to the left. But shimming it would just have the result of having to slide the upper porting of the tailstock even further to the left. Maybe badly machined tailstock?

Thanks.
 
I would speculate badly machined everything. Maybe it was built on a Monday, or just before Lunar New Year?

Probably the deeper you go the more you will find and that's not what you signed up for. If they don't even have drawings for it you'll never know what it was supposed to be like, maybe it was designed to cut tapered spirals for soft-serve ice cream machines....

If it were me I would tell the seller to send someone out to crate it up and refund the full amount. The bed is clearly hosed and so is the tailstock, they probably took all the reject parts and slapped something together hoping the buyer wouldn't notice. Make sure eBay is aware of the problem and that you want a refund for defective goods, don't wait since the more time it takes the less likely it is you'll see your money.

John
 
I would agree with John. You should return it for a full refund and stop messing with it. The seller really has little choice. Per eBay's definition of NEW: New: A brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging (where packaging is applicable). The front rail is clearly ground down to deal with a casting flaw in a very obvious way and that constitutes damage before it even left the factory. On this basis alone, the seller has to pay for shipping from your location and he has to provide a full refund, at least according to eBay's rules.

I suggest you stop messing with the lathe immediately and file a claim with eBay for a return and full refund. You only have 30 days from the day of receipt to get this done. If I were you, I would get my money back and find another lathe.
 
Hey, I went ahead and pulled off one of the arrow decals, and sure enough there is a hole there with a 3mm set screw in it. I cranked up the lathe and tried running the set screw further in, which it went quite a ways in, but I didn't try to bottom it out in case it would just fall inside somewhere. And I also tried pulling it out flush with the edge of the control knob. Didn't make any difference. But the fact that it MOVED so far in leads me to believe that those parts my wife found laying on the bottom of the crate might actually NEED to have been placed in those set screw holes for detents, and those upside down labels were put on prematurely. Perhaps the person who did that either dropped them in the crate anyway, thinking the buyer would have to figure it out. Just speculating, of course. But that set screw sure did feel like it was there for a purpose other than holding that control knob onto something.

I sent the pics to the seller to see if he can talk to some tech about this and come up with an answer. A darn exploded view parts diagram sure would be handy!!
Reading this thread when I saw the pictures of the springs and ball bearings this was my first thought, just as well I continued to read to the end before posting.

The gearbox in my mill is exactly the same. The ball bearings engage with detents in the casting to keep the knob in position and the gears engaged. Without them you would need to manually hold the knobs in position or they jump out.

Pull out the set screw, throw one bearing in, the a spring and put the setscrew back about flush with the knob surface.

That will fix one problem but it sounds like you have bigger issues.

Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk
 
Yeah, I believe you guys are correct. In the last correspondence with the seller, he wanted me to try the feed direction change control with the spindle running at 1000 rpm. Interestingly enough, I found a manual of a lathe that has nearly identical carriage controls -> https://www.precisionmatthews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/PM-1030V-2-9-2018-V1-web.pdf

Has a very nice exploded parts diagram too, on page 26, which clearly shows springs and ball bearings behind the set screws in those two knobs. Apparently the parts we found on the bottom of the crate were not ALL of the items needed for those two control knobs. Just found those that were fortunate enough to meet up with those magnets that were also rattling around in there.

Then the seller wanted me to take a picture of the gear end of the lathe because the spindle speed display wasn't showing the numbers in the video I took. Like I wouldn't have mentioned that if that was another problem...

Anyway, I feel I tried everything I could. I told the guy to either have a tested and QC inspected replacement machine on it's way to me by the end of next week, or the parts to fix it AND correspondence from someone who knows what the heck they are talking about or I will be filing a claim with Ebay/PayPal/credit card company for receipt of defective merchandise. I guess I probably should have left off the part about the replacement parts, but damn, I have this darn nasty streak of trying to be fair with people. Even if they may not deserve it.

Well, this was a real big pain in the butt. Guess I'll be putting the Emco Maier back where it had been sitting the past decade or so and that will just have to do me for any lathe work I want to do.
 
You have been very fair with this seller.

Here's how this works for them. The seller knows nothing about the lathe other than how much it costs them and what they are trying to sell it for. They never even saw the machine before you got it and are now trying to get answers from the manufacturer or some other middleman who knows only a little bit more than they do.

Their number one objective is to not refund your money and they will do almost anything towards that goal including making promises they have no intention of keeping.

If you do get parts they will come from China and take a very long time to get here so agreeing to that will take you past the cutoff dates for eBay at the very least. Also, the likelihood that the parts you receive, if any, will fit your machine is very low. They will try to talk you into sourcing repair parts yourself, and doing your own repairs. None of this was mentioned in the original ad and shouldn't be expected of you. Just add up the time you've spent trying to troubleshoot this mess and decide if you have already exceeded the value of this tool even if it was working.

Remember, none of the people you communicate with will have much command of the English language so it will be very hard to even get straight answers regardless. And, even if they do their knowledge of lathes is probably much less than yours, ie. they might not even understand why the problems you have matter.

This is what I would call a Monopoly game situation, "go straight to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200".

Take a look at the other items this seller has on eBay (if they're even still active under the name they were using) and you'll probably find a bunch of random stuff that has little or nothing to do with machine tools. They probably have several dozen other dissatisfied buyers they are dealing with now, you may not even be communicating with the responsible party, eBay has no way of verifying users in China and they really don't care as long as the fees are paid.

I'm not guessing about this stuff, I bought a bargain packaging machine several years ago and ended up with a similar situation. There's no win=win scenario here, just you being out time, energy and probably money if you continue. File your claim now, they are stalling you and have no intention or ability to correct the problems with this machine. I wish I was wrong but experience shows otherwise. They will play on your desire to "be fair" until they can fade away with your money which they certainly have already spent on other worthless goods to sell to unsuspecting buyers.

This is a business for them, the people (companies) behind this have hundreds of eBay accounts with good seller ratings they can sacrifice so the ratings/feedback system means nothing to them at this point. They can make an account, sell a thousand $2 trinkets to get a good rating, and then go for a big score like unloading a scrap machine tool and never use that account again. Don't fall for it, use the protections built into the system and make eBay eat the loss.

John
 
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