Buying my first new lathe. Chinese or Chinese?

[matthewsx]

It’s a Generac 22kw model G0070422, we went the whole house route instead of picking which circuits to power, and I can still play in my shop during a power outage . The difference between the whole house size and going smaller was not that much since there is a lot more labor to wire up the individual circuits compared to one large wire going into the panel. We bought a 500 gallon propane tank for it and connected it to our gas fireplace as well, that way we don’t have to pay fuel tax on the propane. That size tank should last a week outage, if not more.

Just make sure if you have a long outage you shut it down every day or two and check the oil. I used to sell Briggs home standby units and had a fun warranty repair because of it.

John

 

[pontiac428]

Im a very visual type . Love to see a well done video also

I'm a bookworm, so the video is projected on the backs of my eyelids. But I'm sure someone has made a video on alignment methods.

 

[Ischgl99]

Just make sure if you have a long outage you shut it down every day or two and check the oil. I used to sell Briggs home standby units and had a fun warranty repair because of it.

John

Good point. More than a few hours is unusual for us, so hopefully I don’t need to worry about that, but will definitely keep it in mind.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Well, I finally got it. It was delivered in a box truck and the create they used broke in 40 pieces. A little disappointed but I will keep on as most of the damages are cosmetic and I don't think it actually hurt the lathe. I do see the cheapness in the Chinese lathe compared to the Taiwanese, but I am not 100% convinced the extra 5K would have been worth it. I can tell you one thing I do know that the Chinese cannot do and that is to write a operations manual!! The instructions for this lathe are below awful and for a 9K lathe you would think at least PM would spend a few minutes on upgrading it. I have had a chance to spin it up and made a couple quick cuts and seems good so far.

I have a couple questions for the pro's here for a somewhat newbie. Can I rely on the carriage stop block to actually stop the carriage? Most lathes I have ran this block would stop it but this one doesn't seem to lock down tight enough to do it.
Can I assume that the head stock and tail stock would be dialed in or do I need to do this long tedious process?
When do you use a live center opposed to using a standard center?

My PM1236 has the safety and it has a clutch on the drive shaft which does work but you'll need to set it up each time you change chucks based upon the thickness of the chuck but it will save you if set up.

 

[B2]

@Ischgl99

It’s a Generac 22kw model G0070422, we went the whole house route instead of picking which circuits to power, and I can

Thanks for the info. I have been thinking I need to get something. These things are not simple engines/motors. 2 cylinder and the next model up is 4 cylinder. The smaller and bigger ones have an over lap in the power output. I suppose the bigger motor last longer? However, I did a quick search, non-scientific, and noted that the expect motor life is about 3000 hours. Not all that many if you have longer outages. It seems the motors last longer if the load is about 1/2 of the maximum. Too little load or too large a load and the engines wear out sooner. So 1/2 of 22Kw is 11Kw. Divide by 220 volts and you get 50 Amps of 220. 100 amps of 110.

That is really a pretty heavy load for most houses. It sounds like one should either sit around in the dark with the engine/motor not running at all or light the whole place up, turn on the oven and go run both the lathe and the mill all at the same time.

 

[Ischgl99]

@Ischgl99

Thanks for the info. I have been thinking I need to get something. These things are not simple engines/motors. 2 cylinder and the next model up is 4 cylinder. The smaller and bigger ones have an over lap in the power output. I suppose the bigger motor last longer? However, I did a quick search, non-scientific, and noted that the expect motor life is about 3000 hours. Not all that many if you have longer outages. It seems the motors last longer if the load is about 1/2 of the maximum. Too little load or too large a load and the engines wear out sooner. So 1/2 of 22Kw is 11Kw. Divide by 220 volts and you get 50 Amps of 220. 100 amps of 110.

That is really a pretty heavy load for most houses. It sounds like one should either sit around in the dark with the engine/motor not running at all or light the whole place up, turn on the oven and go run both the lathe and the mill all at the same time.

We have electric hot water and stove, as well as a 300 foot deep well pump, so it won’t take much to put us at 1/2 load. The big thing was my wife wanted the A/C to be able to run in the summer on the generator, usually when the power fails its hot and humid, so with the other loads, not sure if we could have gone much smaller anyways.

It runs for 5 minutes each week to exercise it, so over the course of 30 years, that’s only 130 hours. At an expected 3,000 hour life, that gives an average of 95 hours per year of outages. So far we have 12 run hours on it and it’s been in service since Nov 2021, so that is only a few hours of outages since then, I think the generator will fail due to age rather than wearing out.

A nice thing about the Generac, the others probably have this too, there is a mobile app so you can monitor it even when you are not at home. Gives you some comfort knowing it is protecting the house during a winter power failure so you don’t come home to burst water pipes.

 

[B2]

some comfort knowing it is protecting the house during a winter power failure so you don’t come home to burst water pipes.

So you have the auto switch over system. In my physical layout is a bit difficult to install this feature, but it would be nice to have.

My thought had been, when I need the power, I would manually switch the mains breaker off and then go manually switch on the generator connector at an installed breaker. I have the main panel at one corner in the house, but there is no room to put the generator outside near it (there is actually just enough room, but then limited clearance for air circulation etc. So, I would have to put the generator at the other side of the lot, probably ~75-85 feet from the mains box. This would be a long run to fish a cable this far through the house. But I have a large sub panel near this location so the thought would be to install the power at the sub panel (about 20 feet from the generator location) and let the current flow back towards the main and be distributed in the rest of the house. The wire that feeds the sub-panel is rated at 150 Amps 220, but I have it on a 125 amp 220 breaker at the mains box ..... Any larger breaker would be physically twice as large and take up to much of the mains panel. So my system would certainly handle the 22kw generator output of 220V 100 Amp.

I have not investigated the inter workings of the automatic switch. Maybe there is a way to switch things at a large distance ? How do they sense the lost of power? I assumed that when the kick in they switch the Mains input out of the circuit? If you have the model of what was maybe I could used it to look up the internal workings?

 

[Ischgl99]

We did not like the idea of a manual transfer switch, this way we know we are protected even when we are away. We were in Florida for Christmas in 2022 and there was a bad winter storm that came through here with a lot of power outages, we didn’t need to worry.

Our transfer switch is located next to the service panel, the meter feeds the transfer switch, and the switch feeds the panel. The switch is rated for the service panel size since it carries the full power. There is a circuit that senses when the power goes out and then switches to the generator, the power is out 10 seconds or so, before it switches, I don’t recall exactly how long, but it is not that long. When the power comes back on, the switch is seamless, no loss of power when it switches back. The generator is on the other side of the house with the power and controls wiring run through the basement, probably about 40 feet.

I think we hijacked this thread enough, if you have any more questions, feel free to PM me.

 

[B2]

You are right about the hijacking. No more. Thanks.