The Telltale Bearing (Samson/BPT clone with noisy head)

[DMS]

So, I got her back together today. She needs a little final cleanup from all of my grubby handprints smeared all over it, but otherwise looks good. I fired up the VFD, and everything seems good, not horrible noise (the hum from the vfd is a little annoying, I may invest in some line reactors). Everything seems smooth and solid with my JBweld fix, I'll see how well it holds.

I also called Grizzly; they will take the part back, with a 10% restock fee (fyi, if you need to return a part, they said they waive the restock fee if you exchange for a part of equal or greater value). I checked stock on the lower pulley half...out of stock, 4-6 week lead time. So, hopefully my patch job holds for at least that long.

Next step, tram the head and take my first cut. Seems like forever since I actually bought this thing.

DMS

 

[DMS]

Well Done DMS,

Meanwhile my Mill is still in exactly the sames state as it was when you were thinking of buying yours, with the better half of the knee, feeds system and table stripped out to clean the universal table locks,
Danged Sciatica,

Just keeping on the job and plugging away always works, the great thing about this hobby is that even when a machine is down and you have to fix it the odds are you are still working within the hobby, machining and precision fitting.

Best Regards
Rick

Sorry to hear about the back, I have been there, not fun.

I agree on the machine down to a point; since I got my lathe almost all of what I have done is make tools or attachments for my tools and attachments . It's nice to have machines that work so you can work with them instead of on them. I've taken a couple cuts with her. She still needs some dialing in, but she works!

 

[DMS]

Hehe, speaking of using tools. I suggested at some point that my girlfriend could make pens as gifts this year. She was pretty jazzed about that, so I outfitted my little mini lathe with a tool rest and we picked up some tools for making pens. Cool stuff, and I have proved my usefulness . I managed to use the mill and my new welder to throw together the tool rest.

What's that? The tool rest is just another tool.... damnit...