And finally I used the lathe as a lathe (first time) to clean up the circular recess in the top slide base I cast yesterday.
I used the new fixed toolpost, which can either be mounted directly to the cross slide, or on top of the tee-bars. The hole spacing allows either.
The new top slide base will mount directly to the carriage.
![](http://www.sredmond.com/vtsteam/Lathe/TopSlideBase3.jpg)
I was very impressed with the solid feel of the lathe. No chatter with this difficult zamac piece. I had decided I wanted to move the recess back 1/8" so I was facing the hole sides eccentric. There was sand in the rough cast surface. And I needed to relieve to a sharp inside corner. The carbide insert I had was not ideal for the above, HSS would have been better, but quickly blunted. The lathe cut through without hesitation.
I was also impressed by the power of the motor and belt drive, even at 100 rpm with a heavy chunk of casting off center and out of balance there was no slowing down in a flat side profiling cut. Even though it doesn't have back gears.
And the mass of the new lathe and the new roller bearings, meant that though the flywheel load was un-balanced, there was no vibration or jumping around. I normally add weights to balance anything as off center and heavy as this casting was, but when I first tried out low speed operation, the lack of vibration (plus to my impatience level) had me trying a cut, without problem, and then I just kept going.
![:dremel:](https://madmodder.net/Smileys/default/smiley_dremel.gif)