My new Taiwanese lathe

I've never used a machine with a 'safety shield'... The only one that I have seen was permanently stored (for safety) behind the lathe.




I began this hobby in 1979 for the same purpose... Now that I am retired, it has become an endless source of entertainment!

I've never used a machine with a 'safety shield'... The only one that I have seen was permanently stored (for safety) behind the lathe.




I began this hobby in 1979 for the same purpose... Now that I am retired, it has become an endless source of entertainment!
 
Your lathe looks identical to several models that are sold here in the US, the Eisen 1236 and the PM 1236GT. All of these, and any modern new lathe would have an interlock system to prevent a restart when powering up the lathe. I would be very concerned if you purchased this "new" and it did not have this feature. I would contact the dealer you purchased it from, as I think almost every country has some form of safety standards that would prohibit this. Maybe you have no relays or contactors, who knows? If you were to use a VFD with a 3 phase motor, some have an auto-restart lockout feature that can prevent this, or there are some very simple relay designs to prevent this from occurring. If you were closer, I would send you a spare control board for this lathe which is modified for VFD use.

I do use a splash guard (not a chuck guard) on my lathe and it significantly cuts down on the oil and hot chips flying all over the place (and in my face). I have the option to use it or not, so for something like threading I do not use it. Like Firestopper, I throw away the "safety spring" on the chuck keys, and I practice proper due diligence in always removing the key. As I get older, I have a few of those short term memory lapses, and think well I will remember blah blah blah.... as something goes flying across the room.
 
Thanks for the welcome and comments.
I’ve been pretty happy with the lathe and having so much fun learning the skills of machining. I was planning to use carbide insert tools but decided to man up and learn to bring HSS. It took a while to get it right but I can put together a pretty good tool now. I went down the path of fabricating a guide tool but found much more success leaving the grinder rest horizontal and hand grinding resting my hand on the table.
I had some fun last week turning my first thread. I was using a piece of structural steel so wasn’t bothered about the hairy finish, the problem was The tread was more a ramp rather than 60 degree peak. I checked and double checked everything, it seemed I was losing synchronisation with the leadscrew. After reading through more articles online I finally realised 30 deg mark on my lathe is actually 60 deg from perpendicular - so obvious when you look at it. Anyway threading skills progressing now.
Main project at present is to build a new electrical system for the lathe. Only having a Fwd / Rev worries me every time if switch on - have I set the control to off?

You've begun a learning curve that will never end. Learning to hand grind HSS tool bits is just the beginning, but a skill well worth having, some jobs just work better with HSS, particularly single point threading. The next thing to learn is hand sharpening of drill bits, it's not hard, just takes a bit of practice, once you start doing it regularly you'll find it becomes fairly easy. Start with an old drill somewhere in the 3/8 -1/2 inch range and using a brand new drill as a pattern. There are also some good guides on youtube and instructables and on this forum plus others

Scrap structural steel is great for practicing on, most fabricating shops throw away a large amount of scrap, that is quite often big pieces, cut it up and use it for practice, I even use it for projects where appropriate.

Don't feel too bad about being caught out by the 60* 30* trick At least now you understand the difference. About half the lathes in the world are built one way and the other half built the other way, so anyone can get caught by it.

I'm surprised that Hafco sold you a machine without a dead switch, I'm asuming you bought it from the agent in NZ, check with the relevent electrical authorities in NZ . I'm pretty sure here in Aus its a legal requirement that you have to reset the main switch when power is restored. I'm also pretty sure your laws and ours are the same in electrical standards. My lathe, drill press and band saw, and that is hafco, all came with dead switch as standard.

Also don't stress too much about the belts being difficult to change. I put mine onto the low speed pully when I first got it, for screw cutting and it's still there, you'll find that the 6 speeds from there are generally all you'll need unless you are doing some very small work.

The lathe I used when doing my apprenticeship only had six speeds and the fastest was only 350rpm
 
I've never used a machine with a 'safety shield'... The only one that I have seen was permanently stored (for safety) behind the lathe.




I began this hobby in 1979 for the same purpose... Now that I am retired, it has become an endless source of entertainment!

I sometimes run with the safety shield on and sometimes off, I like it when machining with flood coolant as it stops the stuff being flung all over the shop which makes a mess, but it's also wastefull. At other times, particularly screwcutting, I like to be able to see what I'm doing.
 
So I'm new to machining. I've cut, bashed, bent and welded metal for quite some years now. Purely for fun to give me a diversion from the pain of being part of the IT industry. I've been looking to add a lathe to the workshop for a few years now. I've been looking for a good second hand machine for a while now but here in New Zealand there hasn't been a lot available that's in good enough condition. I've watched YouTube videos, read website blogs and wandered through dozens of forums gathering information to make that first purchase. I hate buying any tool only to find it isn't quite up to the job. So after much reading and with a little bit of apprehension I purchased a new Taiwanese 12x36 2hp lathe - a Hafco AL-960B.
I have read horror stories about Asian lathes having casting sand in the gearbox, out of tolerance components and other assorted nasties so this lathe got a thorough going over as it was uncrated. I have been very pleased with what I've found so far. Castings are pretty good and certainly better than some Chinese lathes I've seen. Once the lathe was mounted on its stand and given an initial alignment I ran the DTI over most of the moving parts and it was well inside the tolerances for this unit so I was quite happy. There's a few annoyances such as the Drive belts are very difficult to change as the motor won't move as far as it should as it runs up to the rear splash guard and into one of the headstock adjustment screws. Second and more important issue is that the motor control is a simple FWD / OFF/ REV switch. Turn the power on while the switch is in FWD or REV and the spindle starts to turn. I've already bought some contractors and will be building a new electrics system. I'm learning how to grind tools and chips have started to fly so let the fun begin.
One question, if anyone is still reading, do people use the chuck guards that seem to be supplied with new lathes. I don't see what real purpose they serve covering just the chuck and I'm not usually standing in front of the chuck. I don't recall any videos where a chuck guard is in use.
This is an old thread but on the chuck guard I firstly thought the same as you was it useful however the more I learn I left mine in as personally I think it helps preventing leaving the chuck key in as this chuck guard will not let the lathe start with it up and if you left the chuck key in you can't lower the guard 'This is just my thoughts on it.
 
Looks like a nice lathe.
When I was turning some long shafts the other day, I wish I had a guard that moved with the spindle. The lathe at work has a chuck guard which is good when working close to it, but the hot chips fly everywhere once you move away.
Take like this job below. Need more chip control/protection!

The photo shows the new work rolls that I am making for a new 4 high hot rolling machine. Total length of 18” 1.25” A2 steel. Lots of chips when done! Still have to be hardened etc.
D490B139-DCC5-47E4-8A73-274507E7FFE5.jpeg
 
I’ve mounted the chuck guard and find it can be quite useful. The guard doesn’t have an electric interlock so I can run the lathe with the guard up or down so depending on what I’m doing I can set the guard as best suits.
Yep, I have to be extra careful about where I leave the chuck key. When I first got the lathe the chuck key had a spring so the key wouldn’t stay in the key way, the spring would push the key out. I found that so unbelievably annoying so off came the spring.
 
I’ve mounted the chuck guard and find it can be quite useful. The guard doesn’t have an electric interlock so I can run the lathe with the guard up or down so depending on what I’m doing I can set the guard as best suits.
Yep, I have to be extra careful about where I leave the chuck key. When I first got the lathe the chuck key had a spring so the key wouldn’t stay in the key way, the spring would push the key out. I found that so unbelievably annoying so off came the spring.

I'm contiually surprised by the lack of electrial safety with a taiwan lathe especially from an Australian supplier, I can only assume that they use different rules in NZ. because even my cheap chinese bench drill has a cut out and my taiwanese band sawe supplied by Hafco has an eklectrical cut out. Check with the NZ authorities, you might have claim for hafco to fix it free.
 
So I'm new to machining. I've cut, bashed, bent and welded metal for quite some years now. Purely for fun to give me a diversion from the pain of being part of the IT industry. I've been looking to add a lathe to the workshop for a few years now. I've been looking for a good second hand machine for a while now but here in New Zealand there hasn't been a lot available that's in good enough condition. I've watched YouTube videos, read website blogs and wandered through dozens of forums gathering information to make that first purchase. I hate buying any tool only to find it isn't quite up to the job. So after much reading and with a little bit of apprehension I purchased a new Taiwanese 12x36 2hp lathe - a Hafco AL-960B.
I have read horror stories about Asian lathes having casting sand in the gearbox, out of tolerance components and other assorted nasties so this lathe got a thorough going over as it was uncrated. I have been very pleased with what I've found so far. Castings are pretty good and certainly better than some Chinese lathes I've seen. Once the lathe was mounted on its stand and given an initial alignment I ran the DTI over most of the moving parts and it was well inside the tolerances for this unit so I was quite happy. There's a few annoyances such as the Drive belts are very difficult to change as the motor won't move as far as it should as it runs up to the rear splash guard and into one of the headstock adjustment screws. Second and more important issue is that the motor control is a simple FWD / OFF/ REV switch. Turn the power on while the switch is in FWD or REV and the spindle starts to turn. I've already bought some contractors and will be building a new electrics system. I'm learning how to grind tools and chips have started to fly so let the fun begin.
One question, if anyone is still reading, do people use the chuck guards that seem to be supplied with new lathes. I don't see what real purpose they serve covering just the chuck and I'm not usually standing in front of the chuck. I don't recall any videos where a chuck guard is in use.
on my Asian lathe the guard is also the safety switch machine will not turn on until the guard is down
 
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