Good ideaFor regular turning (not thread cutting) I either remove the threading dial or swivel it so the gear teeth aren't engaged with the leadscrew. No point putting a lot of wear on it when it isn't being used, IMO.
Well….here’s a vid of my setup running. The printed 65T gear meshes with the 50T that is on the lead screw shaft. Maybe that combo is different on a different model?In your original post, you said : "The manual and the label on the case say the gear setup needs to be a 40-tooth on A, a 65-tooth at B, nothing a C (?), and a 55-tooth at D. There are no 65 or 55 tooth gears in the set or even on the lathe."
The 65 tooth is just an idler; you could have used any gear that fits in that space (with adjustment). No matter; the 55 tooth may come in handy some day. It took a while before I understood how change gears worked - it's just arithmetic (ratio between the spindle and leadscrew rotations), but it can be confusing.
Yes, every time the 40T moves by one tooth, the 50T also moves by one tooth. It doesn't matter whether it's a 65T, a 60T, or a 63T in between-it's an idler. As long as you can adjust the banjo to get the idler to mesh with the other gears, you can use any size you like. I think you had 40T,50T,60T in your stock set of change gears?Well….here’s a vid of my setup running. The printed 65T gear meshes with the 50T that is on the lead screw shaft. Maybe that combo is different on a different model?
It took me a while to have things start making sense. At the beginning I just 'followed instructions blindly' - which worked OK, mostly.Oh geez…just when I thought I might be understanding it! . I guess I’d better get educated on gear ratios and the like! Yes, I have those in addition to a 30T, 35T, and 45T.
I am still confused. That manual states that the lathe has a metric (1.5mm pitch) leadscrew. If that's true (and I have always assumed that all the Vevor lathes had 1.5mm leadscrews) I don't see how @6Sally5 could have cut an accurate 20 TPI thread using a 40 and 50 change gear combination. 20 TPI is a thread pitch of .050" A 40/50 gear set with a 1.5mm pitch leadscrew will produce a thread with a pitch of 1.2mm or .047"the manual for your lathe. I found it and according to the manual,