Weiss lathe WMP280VF

Was able to get a few hours of play time today. While playing I made a replacement bushing on the lathe - the finish was quite nice. My skills are basic; i overshot by just a bit and it's not as tight as i'd like it to be but it will work for now. I attempted to copy the little machine shop style bushings where the key is separate and the bushing is slotted to take the key. It came out OK. I made two bushings - one i slotted with the mill for the key. Here's a pic of what i was describing - also shown is the broken sintered metal bushing below the gears i was testing with.

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Here's a pic of the machine after re-assembly. I didn't get one while i was working on it a few days ago.

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Still working on improving my skills here. After some more hours on the machine i'm getting so i'm not completely terrible at it. The next thing is to get better at measuring and trusting the measurements i'm getting as i've overshot a few times and had to start over. Taking everything apart, cleaning, adjusting and lubricating parts has helped. I purchased a carbide aluminum cutter and on some steels it leaves a very nice finish but sometimes it seems that the HSS cutters do better.

I bought this lathe used and it didn't come with a 4 jaw chuck. I emailed Weiss and they can get me one but shipping is quite pricey - but it's probably the best solution. In my looking at the typical places like LMS i found that the spindle on this machine is a bit of an oddball size - using a caliper the rough measurements are a 52mm registration boss and a 72mm bolt circle. The machine looks almost identical to the older PM1127 or Warco WM280V or Craftex 701 (although that has the larger spindle like the newer LB series from PM) but no one will sell me parts as it's not their machine. DRO Pros don't have parts from Weiss coming in currently even though they are still a distributor. I do wish that it was a D1-4 or similar chuck mount for both convenience and availability but it was the one in my price range and in driving distance.
 
Purchased a digital micrometer from Harbor Freight - $30 with the 20% off coupon. Other than the rachet being closer to the anvil which takes some getting used to it seems like a decent unit. As I mentioned I was having issues getting repeatable (and accurate?) measurements with my digital calipers but switching to the digital micrometer made it much faster and easier. Set what i want the final part to be, hit the incremental mode button, then measure my part. The display will tell you how far you have to go. That's what i was trying to do with the manual micrometer and also the digital calipers but i was going wrong somewhere.

Well worth the $30. I made another hammer which has both plastic and brass faces and is a bit larger. I posted it in a thread here: https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/soft-faced-machinist-hammer.100463/ which is hopefully the correct spot.

LMS said they didn't have anything that would bolt right up to my lathe so i emailed Weiss again. I inquired about a follow rest, steady rest and the 4 jaw chuck with backing plate. All together is about $450 for those part air mailed to me. Shipping alone is $285! :0 I don't think i'll use the rests much but i think that i'll always want them if i don't have them. It's about $250 for the 4 jaw chuck + backplate and shipping.

Thoughts and advice is appreciated.
 
I am pretty impressed at your replacement shaft cost, good for Weiss. And the quoted costs seem very acceptable, especially if you could get them on the slow boat.
 
That's airfreight. They didn't offer any other shipping options and i do wonder if it's the only option because of customs or the fact that it would be hard to track such a small shipment via a container ship. Who knows. It wasn't terrible and honestly the costs for the other items isn't that bad either; i see just chucks on ebay for more than they're asking for the chuck and blackplate.
 
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