One ******-off Asian lady!

T

toolman

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Well, not a lady per se, but rather my Vectrax lathe. I was installing a set of levelling feet on it and got lazy. Instead of picking it up with my chain hoist like I should have, I had a set of wheels clamped to one end so I could turn it where I wanted it, then I levered the headstock end up using a piece of 2" round stock and a 2x4 so I could slip the studs into the holes, forgetting that it was resting on the wheels. Needless to say, I had my 2x4 in the wrong spot and when I levered it up, it pivoted on the back wheel, causing it to snap, dumping it over.

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/...15-02/IMG_20150214_134841_976_zpscxemn8b5.jpg

Damage so far is a broken cast iron motor mount, both motor mount pivot bolts, the rear chip guard, the electric box (salvageable), and one busted contactor in the box. I've pretty well straightened out the box and door, and I pieced the motor mount back together using 1/4" plate. I'm going to get pivot bolts tomorrow morning and try to cobble some bushings together because the original bolts are shouldered and I don't have a lathe to build new ones. I'm hoping the contactor isn't too hard to find, it's really going to suck if I have to order it from Taiwan, maybe I'll get lucky and MSC or Enco will have one in stock so I can see what all else is wrong with it.
 
OWWWWW!! hopefully you weren't hurt when she went over.As my daddy used to say "Don't do that again." Best of luck on the repair.
****G****
 
grumpygator said:
OWWWWW!! hopefully you weren't hurt when she went over.As my daddy used to say "Don't do that again." Best of luck on the repair.
****G****
Click to expand...
Yep, I'm really hoping that the DRO is still functional. One of the cables got mashed pretty bad, bit it looks OK looking through the sheathing. It's really strange how time slows down when something like this happens. I'm just glad that I knew better than to try to catch it.
 
Wow, that sucks & is very sad to see. That's one of my worst nightmares as I live in earth shake country. Bright side is that you weren't crushed by it.
 
That's the stuff that makes grown men cry. Good thing it did not fall to the front!
 
toolman said:
Well, not a lady per se, but rather my Vectrax lathe. I was installing a set of levelling feet on it and got lazy. Instead of picking it up with my chain hoist like I should have, I had a set of wheels clamped to one end so I could turn it where I wanted it, then I levered the headstock end up using a piece of 2" round stock and a 2x4 so I could slip the studs into the holes, forgetting that it was resting on the wheels. Needless to say, I had my 2x4 in the wrong spot and when I levered it up, it pivoted on the back wheel, causing it to snap, dumping it over.

I know the drill for this episode as well. A couple of years ago when I attempted to relocate my Harrison M300 I dumped her over, luckily onto soft lawn. The unlucky damage included both molded plastic headstock shrouds & a fiber change gear. I was fortunate to finally locate some used shrouds but the gear set me back $405 & change. The lathe didn't complain much but I found a handy mirror & *****ed out the perpetraitor.


http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/rr310/ToolMan41/Mobile Uploads/2015-02/IMG_20150214_134841_976_zpscxemn8b5.jpg

Damage so far is a broken cast iron motor mount, both motor mount pivot bolts, the rear chip guard, the electric box (salvageable), and one busted contactor in the box. I've pretty well straightened out the box and door, and I pieced the motor mount back together using 1/4" plate. I'm going to get pivot bolts tomorrow morning and try to cobble some bushings together because the original bolts are shouldered and I don't have a lathe to build new ones. I'm hoping the contactor isn't too hard to find, it's really going to suck if I have to order it from Taiwan, maybe I'll get lucky and MSC or Enco will have one in stock so I can see what all else is wrong with it.
Click to expand...
 
So long as nobody was hurt. Machines can be fixed or replaced. Although I'll bet that made a god-awful racket when it went. At times like that my vocabulary shrinks to 4 letter words at high volume.
 
Sorry to see this but thank you for sharing your experience. Hopefully others can learn from it.
 
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