Buying a lathe - how to check powerfeed without being able to run it?

[Ken from ontario]

Glad to hear it worked out for you, for a $1000 you got a good size lathe, it's easily $3000 here in Canada.

 

[hman]

Looks like ya got a heckuva deal!

 

[Weldingrod1]

He shoots, he scores! Nice iron!

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

[Janderso]

Let us know how it all works out, how you like the lathe, overall condition etc.
Lots of us buy and sell lathes on this forum. It's a big expense and the move is always a memorable day!
Congratulations.

 

[extropic]

Congratulations. The lathe looks almost brand new.

Be safe.

Enjoy.

 

[markba633csi]

Very nice- have you identified which gear is missing? Any operational issues?
-Mark

 

[Friendly non murdering Sword]

Let us know how it all works out, how you like the lathe, overall condition etc.
Lots of us buy and sell lathes on this forum. It's a big expense and the move is always a memorable day!
Congratulations.

So I was able to spend some time with the lathe and I really enjoy using it. I was surprised at the power and rigidity, cutting steel is quite a pleasure. I couldn't get the motor to stall because the circuit breaker trips before that.

But before all of that I actually pulled apart almost every piece of the lathe (compound, cross slide, apron,...) except for the spindle gearbox and gave it a thorough inspection and cleaning. I did this because the machine was quite dirty (it stood in a barn before) and I like to know how everything works, this also makes spotting and fixing errors more easy. Here are some pictures:

Very nice- have you identified which gear is missing? Any operational issues?
-Mark

Fortunately the lathe doesn't have a single issue, I was able to run it right away after that cleanup with no problem. I have identified the missing gear but here comes the tricky part. The gears don't have a simple keyway but rather this spline, so it will be much more complicated and time consuming to machine a spare one, but with a dividing head and slotting head I do have all equipment needed.


The slotting head is another story for itself, hopefully I'll have time to finish that any time soon (see this thread: Deckel FP1 slotting head restauration) and I don't know if I will have enough time to tackle that gear slotting this year. But luckily I can cut most standard metric threads with the gears I already have, so...

I did however exchange the standard toolholder with a dixon-style quick change tool post and for that I needed to turn a new stud:

 

[rabler]

If the breaker trips before stalling the lathe or tripping a control circuit overload, this means one of two things
1) You're running it on too small of a circuit, it needs more current. This is not ideal even if you don't keep tripping the breaker, as you *might* be getting excessive voltage drop depending on your wiring.
2) The lathe doesn't have a working overload for the motor. This could result in a burned out motor if pushed too hard. You'll find out how hard is too hard when the motor overheats.

Either way, I'd want to correct that. Find the motor dataplate and look for the amps or FLA number. It should be less than the circuit size, typically less than something like 75% of the breaker size.