My new Taiwanese lathe

Striped t-shirt & wall means you're doing it right! ;)

No striped shirt for me though, I was taught to never stand in the line of fire of the chuck.

I'm one of those who don't care for chuck guards/shields. My lathe came with one stock, it was connected to a safety switch. So if the guard was not down, spindle won't power on. Like mentioned it also prevents me from running the lathe with a key in the chuck as the guard can't come down far enough to disengage the safety switch.

I used it for like 8 months or so & thought nothing of it. Mine blocked a lot of the oil flung from a chuck but it was not wide enough to shield from chips. Then when I started making multiples of things, as I would doing an op on each part then change to the next op, I got really tired of the chuck guard as I was swapping each piece in for each op to save time on tool changes & setup. All the chuck guard did was slow me down. Taking mine off was one of the best things I did to my lathe as it saved me so much time when do a run of parts. It served me no real benefit to keep it on so off it stays & has been for years.

I've seen a number of guys here use the flexbar shields which look very nice, pretty expensive too. Having it not connected to a safety switch will allow you to only use it when needed & still run the lathe. Still I prefer not to have one.

You can always try one & see if it's suitable for you. Do you have one for your lathe, it looks like the mounting arm is there.
 
Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I’ve been busy with a sick grandson the last couple of weeks so only just got back into the shop.
My lathe doesn’t have a safety interlock on the chuck guard so I can run it with guard up or down. I’ve gone ahead and fitted the guard so will see how it goes from here.

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I have never used a chuck guard.
My lathe did NOT come with one, and I've seen no requirement for one.

But I did want to say......Congratulations on the new lathe!
I am glad you did your research, paid attention to details, looked it over close during unpacking/assembling and ended up with a good one.
New tools are very exciting times.

-brino
 
Chuck guards are good when you run the lathe. The ones I wouldn't have are the SAFTEY interlocking . If it we're on my own lathe I'd bypass it. But I'd use it if my chips are flying all over. No reason not to , it's only in the way when setting up. Oh and hi it is a nice looking lathe. Welcome to the site.
 
Congrats on the lathe Skierdude , good looking machine and love the DRO . Question , why do you have to mess with the belts ? I ask because I'm seeing spindle gear box shift handles . For me (when I had my shop) my lathes had the chip guard except I didn't really think of them as a chip guard more a coolant guard , when blasting a short part from two different angles with water soluble oil you will be glad to have it . I even had "mud" flaps on mine front and rear , that water sol. was expensive so I wanted to contain it as much as possible .
One more question what stuff are you making ?
 
Congrats on the lathe Skierdude , good looking machine and love the DRO . Question , why do you have to mess with the belts ? I ask because I'm seeing spindle gear box shift handles . For me (when I had my shop) my lathes had the chip guard except I didn't really think of them as a chip guard more a coolant guard , when blasting a short part from two different angles with water soluble oil you will be glad to have it . I even had "mud" flaps on mine front and rear , that water sol. was expensive so I wanted to contain it as much as possible .
One more question what stuff are you making ?
I was extra lucky to get The DRO. It wasn’t in my initial budget but the supplier had a mix up in their import shipment and ended up with one lathe with DRO so rather than make me wait for the next shipment they gave me a super discount.
The lathe has 12 speed spindle with 2 x 3 speeds in the spindle gearbox giving 6 speeds but then also high and low speed pulleys so I need to swap the pulley belt depending on what speed I need. Usually I can run on the slow speed pulley - mostly depends on the stock size etc..
So far I’m still developing machining skills so I’ve mostly made a large box full of chips and curls. Having lots of fun so that’s what counts.
 
Skierdude.

Welcome to this interesting and informative and very friendly site. Congratulations on your new lathe. It looks pretty much like mine although mine is a bit shorter only a 1216. As you can see mine is a different colour. I didn't get mine from hafco, but from modern tools in melbourne and they get their machines direct from the Liang Dei factory in Taiwan. I've had a look at the specs on yours and they read exactly the same as mine, except mine is a bit shorter and no Dro. I don't have the room for a longer machine and didn't want the Dro.

I hope you enjoy your lathe. Don't ever hesitate to ask the guys here if you have any questions about machining. They say the only silly question is the one you didn't ask.

By the way I'm the other side of the ditch in Adelaide S Australia.
 
None of the machines in HS shop had them back in the 70-early 80's. Learned to ALWAYS remove the key of be disciplined. The Navy machines I used didn't have them. My 1440 was purchased new in 2001 didn't come with one. If and when I purchase a new lathe it will be removed if one is supplied with the new machine. Safety glasses, common sense and overall good practice is more than enough.
Some safety upgrades are warranted but others have been silly. I removed the spring loaded idiotic device from my Bison chuck wrench that prevented the key from being used unless you pressed down while using. Yea, the key can be left in place now, but I don't.

Remember this cartoon from the 70's?
http://www.aeroelectric.com/Pictures/MiscTemp/Cowboy_after_OSHA.jpg
 
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.

Purely for fun to give me a diversion from the pain of being part of the IT industry.


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

Welcome to this interesting and informative and very friendly site. Congratulations on your new lathe. It looks pretty much like mine although mine is a bit shorter only a 1216. As you can see mine is a different colour. I didn't get mine from hafco, but from modern tools in melbourne and they get their machines direct from the Liang Dei factory in Taiwan. I've had a look at the specs on yours and they read exactly the same as mine, except mine is a bit shorter and no Dro. I don't have the room for a longer machine and didn't want the Dro.

I hope you enjoy your lathe. Don't ever hesitate to ask the guys here if you have any questions about machining. They say the only silly question is the one you didn't ask.

By the way I'm the other side of the ditch in Adelaide S Australia.

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?
 
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