New Dragon 14x40 Lathe Photos, VFD, Wiring, and Questions.

By the way, I ran the lathe today for over an hour continuously (with stops and starts every 5 minutes to change gears) for the breakin. I kept the electrical enclosure door sealed and the hottest the outside of the VFD got was about under 80 degrees in a 65 degree garage. I need to figure out how to display the VFD internal temps on the led display.
 
aluminum said:
Hi all. Looking to show you my new lathe and also ask some questions and get some recommendations. Thank you in advance!

This lathe was imported by someone who was looking to get into gunsmithing but ended up getting a different job and selling the lathe to me. The previous owner never used it and was having trouble adapting it to single phase power.

I recently finished reconfiguring much of the electrical including adding a VFD, potentiometer, and enclosure as well as new lighted jog switch, and coolant switch. I also changed all the wiring to 14 AWG instead of 18. The lathe came with a DRO and I'm redoing the mounting and repairing a blown fuse that was directly soldered to the internal board, which is why it is not shown in photos. If you're curious, I paid $4800 for it.

Please let me know what you think about the lathe, price paid, feedback on wiring and VFD, etc; positive and negative feedback welcome.

As far as questions, I need some advice on qctp+holders and a basic set of cutting tools as well as where to buy. Base of cross slide to spindle center height is ~1.75". I do have a 4 jaw, 3 jaw, and rests and centers already. I am also looking to replace the 3 phase coolant pump with a 220v single phase pump so let me know if you have a good source for that. Thank you for your feedback and recommendations!
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Nice machine...
 
Hey folks. First chips! Woohoo! I'm trying to get it trued up. The below photo with measurements is without any additional adjustments other than getting the right and left ends of the ways level to each other. I could use some help on next steps.
Should I try to get this better? If so, what needs to be adjusted? Thank you.
 

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Is that unsupported?

Looks pretty good to me
 
7milesup said:
Tool holders on eBay. You may end up replacing the set screws, but they should work fine.

eBay tool holders

One of our members here (@davidpbest) has written a rather useful book on insert tooling. I highly recommend it. Introduction to Insert Lathe Tooling

Also... http://www.hobby-machinist.com/forums/david-p-best-selected-resources-for-machinists.597/

David also has an extensive list of tooling sources and such, but I can't find it at the moment.
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Check out the attached.
 

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I spent the evening chasing .0012" taper over 6". I releveled, tried to adjust the headstock twice and ended up .0012" taper the other way. I learned some things though so it's all good. Tomorrow's another day.
 
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