Bill, the lathe looks great. Sorry, I have been so busy lately I haven't been on the forum much but I had to check in and see if your lathe showed up yet.
Glad to see you received it and you are able to get it set up.
Mike.
Hey Mike! I was starting to worry...
The setup is a 'work in progress', with emphasis on the work. I did manage to make some progress today in the cleanup. About the only thing left is the leadscrew and the whatever I make filthy trying to get that thing clean. I took the tool holder off and marveled at the t-nut and top slide. The sides and top of both are ground and it looks like it was done after the t-nut was installed in the top slide.
The top of the t-nut is flush with the top of the top slide, and is held in place by two set screws (actually had to use some gentle taps from a dead-blow to get it out). Is it important to have the t-nut flush with the top of the top slide? Reason I ask is that the blank I received with my new QCTP is about 8 thou too short in that dimension. It is just barely long and wide enough.
I do like all the ground surfaces. Well, once you clean all the goop off of them. It is kinda like unwrapping a present at Christmas.
Here's a shot of the latest progress.
Some things I've noted so far:
The tailstock doesn't support arbors with tangs on them very well. If you use one like the one I received, you loose 20mm right from the start.
The threading engagement lever almost took a sledge hammer to get working. I started squirting oil everywhere in there and have some really black stuff come out. I have managed to get it working but it is a 'very' positive effort to move it. An accompanying grunt does seem to help. The feed lever is much easier. However, both of these levers are a bit short for me. This first came to my attention as I was trying to disengage the threading half-nuts and promptly smashed my fingers into the apron leaving a bit of skin and blood. To keep a proper distance I can only grab the lever with two fingers and my thumb. Not much leverage given the effort required to move that thing.
The handles on the cross slide wheel and apron wheel are too short, scarred and otherwise look like they've had a very hard life. If you look at the last pic you will see that I tried one of my swivel handles from El Hefe and it works great. Looks like I'm going to be ordering a couple more of those things and putting them on the lathe.
The feed/threading knob is very stiff and takes really good grip to move. The direction knob requires less effort but you can't just casually twist it either. I wish these things had levers on them like the spindle speed levers.
Had to tweak the micrometer stop a bit as it too was rather difficult to turn. Very grabby/gritty. Works better now.
I haven't even gotten to the motor yet, nor cracked open the electrical panel. But, all things considered I am liking this thing.
