Leaking Oil Help

[wnchstrtnfldvlle]

He could’ve been trying to avoid opening the flood gates of repairing items. Technically it wasn’t a warranty repair. I debated even mentioning it, but was trying to let people know that they were willing to work with me.

 

[wnchstrtnfldvlle]

That’s not good. I did not see anything wrong with the gasket on mine so I cleaned everything as good as possible and then put gasket maker on it and put it back together. I let it sit for a few days and it was still leaking on the back side of that cover plate.
I called Mike today and he told me he had no one else’s gear box there they were working on.
He has been nice but I am with you, this has been nothing but problems since day one. I am wondering if the casting isn’t leaking. I asked for a DXF file to get a gasket cut and they won’t give me one so now I have to wait 3 weeks for the order to come in hoping there is no damage from shipping and I refuse to cut one with a knife and scissors.
This is becoming a nightmare.

Yours is a 2v right? How old is it?

Yes it’s a 2V. I think it was Oct-Nov of last year.

 

[Rufustoad]

"Technically it wasn’t a warranty repair." Why wasn't it a warranty if its 1yr old?

 

[Rufustoad]

I guess technically since they had already shipped the gearbox back to wnchstrtnfldvlle, he was telling the truth?

He told me it was a completely different lathe and it was a gear issue that had been returned. Sounded a little odd to me. He has definitely been nice but like I told him this is an $11K machine. When it came to my house it had fell through the skid and dented up the panels on it plus the parts box and tool holders and PM said sorry about your luck. Then the feed stop was drilled wrong and destroyed the ways wiper. Then I tried to use the steady rest and follow rest and they were so badly machined that I couldn't use them. Now this leak and lastly I have a VFD issue that I need to try and fix. I am 3rd and 4th guessing my decision, 2nd guess went out the window.

 

[wnchstrtnfldvlle]

"Technically it wasn’t a warranty repair." Why wasn't it a warranty if its 1yr old?

It’s only a parts warranty. They don’t cover labor. Basically I browbeat them enough to agree to let me ship it to them to see if they could do it. But I can see why he wouldn’t admit to that.

 

[yota]

It’s only a parts warranty. They don’t cover labor. Basically I browbeat them enough to agree to let me ship it to them to see if they could do it. But I can see why he wouldn’t admit to that.

there's a lot of trust in that arrangement.

 

[ericc]

Wow. This is very scary. Reminds me of a bad experience with a Jet 1440 lathe gearbox that required months to sort out. I was completely mystified, but the shop hired a pro and he had the gearbox entirely out on the table in parts. It was very annoying and everybody was always asking when the lathe was ever going to get fixed. It eventually got fixed, but I didn't find out what was the root problem. After that, I bought a South Bend 9 with a broken back gear. Enough of that complicated stuff. I love the South Bend, but it is a chore to swap change gears. I bought a 9A at a liquidation sale, but the gearbox was jammed. The same sale had a full set of change gears, and I'm off and running. Watching a Blondihacks video on YouTube talking about how a new import machine was so much better of a purchase than used, as well as this thread, really brought the painful Jet experience back to the top. Anyway, some happy news. The South Bend just cut an odd fine thread for my missing Champion forge blower locknut. It worked perfectly at a demo.

 

[wnchstrtnfldvlle]

It's frustrating for sure. I'm going to wait until I call them Monday to make any rash decisions. But, I'm also not very hopeful that much will come of it. At this point I think I have two options. Find a legitimate lathe repair company that can come out and get this fixed and reinstalled for good, or I can measure it out for a custom cut gasket that will give it the needed clearance to torque the bolts down enough to seal the seam while still giving it enough clearance to not jam up the shifting knobs. While I'm at it, I may see about adding keys to the shifter blocks shaft to keep them from rotating while reassembling.

 

[wnchstrtnfldvlle]

Started breaking everything back down. This time it's a full disassembly. It's gotten pretty trashed with the constant breakdowns and reassembling. The idea is to use a solid gasket that will not only seal the seam but will give it enough clearance for the shifter blocks to avoid the binding when tightened down. I know it was assembled at the factory using the sealant, and managed to avoid the binding, but this is the only thing I can think of. Gasket material has been ordered.

Some pictures below of the progress made last night.
Before:

After:

 

[qualitymachinetools]

This is the first I am hearing about this, so I am going to look in to it more. I don't know your name, but I will check that out with them on Monday and see whats going on here. We will get it figured out for you though, I am just not sure of all the details yet other than whats posted here.

I will give them this though, it is very hard to re-assemble these gearboxes on the bench and ship, we have no way to run and test them if they are not on the machine. But they should not have instructed to take it apart in the first place, unless it was determined that was 100% necessary. The person who mentioned the dye is spot on, if you can't see where it is coming from exactly, that can definitely help pin point the leak.

Most of the time if its a round seal, or flange gasket, it can be worked out with a pick and re-installed from the outside, or the flange moved out and gasket replaced. Not much disassembly necessary. And certainly not always, but most of the seals are just a press fit in the flange from the outside.
Or sometimes you can just remove that front plate - if you set every knob in a certain spot, mark it and leave it there, careful to not move anything when you remove that face plate, its not bad to do. But when something gets moved, thats when it gets difficult to put back together.

To hold those gear racks up, a dab of thick grease can help most of the time.


If it started leaking after a year, I doubt its a gasket, usually a seal tears or something. If it was a slow seep maybe a gasket, but a fast leak, probably a seal.


For the commens, as far as the warranty, yes, there is no way we could have a team of service people go around the country and fix things, this is a limited market, and very low price points (Considering what they are) Some appliances, yes, they sell thousands and thousands and have techs in a concentrated area. A car yes. Bring it to the dealer, they fix it. Unfortunately lathes don't have wheels and they can't be driven in. We ship all over the US and Canada, just not possible. I wish it was easier. As I always tell people, if you can do it better or come up with a better way, have at it. There are a limited few brands that cover service under warranty (For 1 year, not 3), but the cost is 50% + higher.


Either way we will get you going, I just have to see where we are at.



Also - I am reading the correctly, do we have 2 here? Rufustoad, did you send a gearbox in too? And they told you sorry about your luck?

Please forward that email ASAP, to sales@precisionmatthews.com So I can check in to this. We have not had the 1440-2V in stock in a long time though, but I want to look in to whatever you had happen there.