Is This What A Machined Surface Should Look Like?

So let me get this straight, you have a new King mill and it needed a motor already? Not even to mention the endless problems with this lathe. Does King make a brand for the states? If so, I'm staying away from it.
 
if you paid with a credit card they may be able to help you.
 
TOOLMASTER said:
if you paid with a credit card they may be able to help you.
Click to expand...
Help with what? The seller offered a full refund and the OP decided to keep the lathe. Since the OP already had an issue with his mill and all the issues with this lathe; I'd definitely take the seller up on the offer for a total refund.
Most of these machines come out of the same factory in China; some minor tweaks between name brands. Do without a lathe for now and shop for a used quality machine. That Logan sure look worth investigating.
 
I'd be looking for a decent, used, American, European, Japanese or Taiwanese machine by now... That was my strategy when I went looking for my second lathe, I got a 1950's toolroom-class lathe, slightly scruffy with a couple of minor issues to fix, for less than a Chinese minilathe, although YMMV?

Having worked for an importer of Chinese machines, the OP's experience is unusual - he was offered replacement parts and eventually a refund - usually the buyer thinks the problem is THEM, not the machine!
I think many importers see "quality control" as "send it out, if they send it back we'll know there was something wrong (and sell it again anyway)" and don't bother making sure what they sell is usable.

Dave H. (the other one)
 
British Steel said:
I'd be looking for a decent, used, American, European, Japanese or Taiwanese machine by now... That was my strategy when I went looking for my second lathe, I got a 1950's toolroom-class lathe, slightly scruffy with a couple of minor issues to fix, for less than a Chinese minilathe, although YMMV?

Having worked for an importer of Chinese machines, the OP's experience is unusual - he was offered replacement parts and eventually a refund - usually the buyer thinks the problem is THEM, not the machine!
I think many importers see "quality control" as "send it out, if they send it back we'll know there was something wrong (and sell it again anyway)" and don't bother making sure what they sell is usable.

Dave H. (the other one)
Click to expand...

I've looked for a used (non Chinese) lathe for a while and eventually gave up. Plus never having used or owned a lathe I had no idea what to look for, so buying used would be very risky, especially something that is old and parts hard to find. I've accepted that this lathe is not the best quality but the dealer I bought it from definitely is. That is the reason I decided to keep it. I know I can rely on him to assist me in getting any issues resolved during the warranty period.

Another thing that made me feel more comfortable with this lathe is that when I went to check out the freight damaged lathe at the dealers, that lathe had none of the problems mine has / had. This suggested that I should be able to get my lathe to the same state by getting replacement parts. I took the entire carriage assembly from that lathe and I don't see any issues with those parts. As far as I can tell right now the only issue is that the leadscrew lifts when the half nuts are engaged. It works fine but I may try to fix this at some point.

It's odd that you mention owners usually think they are the problem since that is the feeling I was getting from some of the staff at the dealers. Stating they have never had issues with these lathes before. Although I don't have any machining experience, I do have some natural mechanical aptitude and a logical mind. Therefore I believe I can figure out how things should work and what is causing something to not work properly. And now I have a whole community of hobby machinists to fall back on when I need answers to issues I can't resolve on my own.
 
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