G0768 Compound Modification

tegelermusic

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Hello everyone!
This is my first official post so I thought I would share a video I just made showing a modification I made to the compound on my lathe. I really like my lathe but was disappointed at how inconvenient it was to change the angle on the compound. I thought - "There has to be a better way" Well I think I found a solution and felt it would be great to pass the idea along to all of you who are also frustrated with this issue.

Keep in mind I'm new at creating shop videos and unfortunately didn't capture all the footage I wanted to but I think you can get a good idea of what I did to accomplish this modification.
Remember I'm new at this so be gentle with the comments ;)

 
Welcome aboard! I think that you are going to like it here.
Your first video is better than a lot of guys that have been with it for a long time. Congrats!
Your compound angle adjustment screws are definitely a lot harder to get to than mine.
I just finished making a new compound clamping plate for my G0602 and it made a LOT of difference
in tool stability. You might look at RJ's clamp that I just copied
Improved G0602 Compound Clamp
I don't know if it or something like would work in
your case, but its worth looking at. The problem with
the 0602 is that the two clamping screws provide a way for the clamped compound to rock from the front
to the back of the cross slide. This modification clamps the compound at 6 points and really makes a big difference
in rigidity.
Again, welcome!

Chuck the grumpy old guy
 
nice video, well done!:)

a little thing to point out, when you had set the compound to 30*, you really set it to 60* to the lathes longitudinal axis.
you'll need to swing the compound towards the headstock another 30* if you are going to thread using compound feeding method .
i made the same mistake, but it was a few years back.:grin:
 
Good video and thats a good mod, I just ordered my G0768 today and look forward to seeing more from you. No pressure though LOL.
Thanks for posting it.
 
Wow, a lot of comments already. Looks like this is going to be a fun place to be.

About the 30* setup...thank you for correcting me on that. It never looked quite right but since I haven't done any threading yet there wasn't a chance to see how bad it would have worked. There is also a technique I heard about to set the compound at 30* and you get a 2 to 1 ratio when feeding in with the compound instead of the cross slide for taking off very small amounts of material. Does anyone know about this and the proper 30* angle for that procedure?

As far as creating the dovetail I used the tool that came with the cheap blue carbide tip tool set from Grizzly that I think is meant for cutting threads. It is pretty narrow and comes to a sharp point. I just set the compound to the angle I wanted and slowly started shaping the cylinder into the dovetail just feeding the compound down into the corner. There was no specific angle, just what looked good to me and then I ground the brass pins to match the angle on my grinder.

Oh yeah, and Chuck I tried the link to the Improved G0602 Compound Clamp but it didn't work. I'm very interested in learning about anything that stiffens up these small lathes. Not that I'm saying I need or want to spend the money on a bigger lathe, it's just easy to see the advantage of having a solid tool setup. So far I've not had any projects that I couldn't do on this lathe as long as I take my time. Besides I'm having a really good time learning so why hurry ;)
 
I have another question regarding your lathe, in the manual the recommended lube for the gear box is grease but I think that was a typo because I see a window in front that looks like its for checking oil.
 
There is no oil window, there is only a set screw that you can take out to squirt additional grease in if it starts to get noisy. In the book it says to grease yearly or as needed (if it gets noisy). Honestly I get to use it so little that I've not had any need to grease it in the first year. It's sounds the same as the first day I started making chips. When I get a chance I'll open it up and check the condition of the grease and probably re-grease the whole thing.
 
Thought I would do a quick update on my lathe.

I was using it the other night and started having a couple of problems.
1st the motor suddenly stopped working. The RPM readout came on and both fuses were good but no motor.
My immediate fear was I pushed it too hard and burned up the motor, but after pulling the motor out I found that one of the brushes caps was loose (there are 2 on my motor). I did a quick inspection and cleanup of the brushes and tightened both caps down... success the motor was working again.
After getting back to work I noticed a slight squeaking noise and shut everything down. After an hour of searching I finely decided it was the spindle bearings. I was thinking what else could go wrong but I'd better take it apart and check things out.
Of course, just like anything I want to learn about these days, I went to YouTube and found a couple of spindle disassembly videos on similar lathes and started going to work. When I got the spindle out I couldn't believe how dry and waxy the bearing grease was and how little there was on the bearings.
Luckily there was no visible damage to the bearings so I headed out to my local Farm & Fleet store and picked up the bearing grease that Grizzly recommended in the manual. After cleaning off all of the old grease, re-packing the bearings with the new grease and putting everything back together, I can't believe how incredible this lathe now operates. This thing has never run this smooth.

The lesson learned: Don't rely on the bearing grease applied at the factory. I have no idea how long that lathe sat in a warehouse before I started using it so who knows what kind of shape the grease was in when I first turned it on. Even with doing the spindle break-in as listed in the instructions I don't believe there was enough grease in there to fully coat the bearings in the first place so I feel lucky to not have not had any permanent damage to the bearings.

My advice - If you don't think your chuck is spinning freely enough take the time to learn how to pull the spindle apart and get some new grease in there.

My test was putting the lathe in neutral and giving the chuck a spin. If it stops right away your bearings could be getting dry.
Or it also might be that the spindle spanner nuts are too tight causing excess drag on the bearings. When putting mine back in I only tightened the spanner nuts enough to just take all of the play out of the spindle.
Now when I run mine up to say 1000 RPM's and turn it off it actually coasts to a stop instead of stopping right away and it also runs much quieter.
 
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